The Dark Side
What do George W Bush and Obi Wan Kenobi have in common?
(Yes, this is a post about the political relevance of the latest Star Wars film — but perhaps not in the sense you expected.)
Dubya and the Jedi are both antisocial, according to a British shopping centre and Tony Blair, because they wear baseball caps and hooded tops. The Brits want to ban young people from wearing those clothes, because there is a perception that they signify gang behaviour.
The perception was fuelled by police who said that more than half of robberies were committed by hooded youths — despite the fact that “only 1.2 per cent of robberies involved someone wearing a hooded top.”
But the fashion police aren’t worried about reality, they’re only interested in public approval. As Padme lamented, “So this is how liberty dies: to thunderous applause.”
Trackback.
Talking to an English friend of mine, this has been rumored for ages and there is no way in hell its going to happen. It’s just not practical. Hoodies are litterally as common as jeans over there, it being cold and all, everyone owns at least one. There is no way they could be banned.
All this is going to do is make them laugh at him even more. I suspect hes just trying to make a statement, or has completely lost his mind.
this has been rumored for ages and there is no way in hell its going to happen
But it has happened, Nic. Blair only commented because he was asked what he thought of the shopping centre’s decision.
It raises a couple of issues. One is the authoritarianism of third way politicians in the name of “social capital”. The other is the privatisation of public space, which I think does more to diminish social capital than teenagers wearing hooded tops.
Mawson on the old Australian $100 note would have been cranky. Edmund Hillary would have defied the ban and worn his hoodie proudly, with a crust of ice around his chin.
There wont be any actual legislation I mean. An individual shopping center is one thing, an entire country is another.
Well, nobody’s saying there would be a Crimes Amendment (Banning of Hoods and Hats) Act, but you might find it added to the list of things taken into consideration when deciding whether to issue an Anti Social Behaviour Order.
1999 Rural Pennsylvania USA. Junior & Middle school students banned from wearing to school – cargo pants with pockets, baggy jeans (that may hide weapons)…having to carry clear or mesh ‘book-bags’ (school bags), only one entrace / exit door to the junior school that was not alarmed, if opened. Individual bathroom facilities for every classroom, so that no one had any reason to leave the classroom outside of official break times.
Bans on hooded garments in public UK – Why would we even be surprised?
I don’t get it. Like, do they think that the hoods are the problem? Because last time I checked, hoods weren’t capable of carrying out acts of violence (even against property), or forming the requisite intent either, for that matter.
Or is this about trying to get ‘those kind of people’ away from the shopping centre? Because what would that achieve anyway?
On the contrary Manas, hoods are a clear and present danger to the security of our Dear Nation™.
Too long has this cotton-polyester menace stalked our communities – shoplifting in our malls, vandalising our churches, kicking kittens, impregnating our daughters. We must face this apparel-peril sternly in the face and arm ourselves with bear-headed vigilance. We cannot let The Garments win.
You may mock our crusade to rid us of this evil, but your Sisyphean efforts will come to nought. The treacherous, pro-garment Left will never learn. Only when The Garments are taking your jobs and stealing your children will you see the error of your ways. You are doomed!!!
Off subject…call me crazy but early Bush looks like Eddie Munster.
Well at least someone’s showing some consistency in applying Old Testament statutes…
I just want to see Gang Members now being forced to wear Bowler hats instead.