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Citizen complaint of the day: The tagger doth protest too much

A sage citizen complains about the dolt who spread out a message across much of the length of a long wall on Winthrop Street in Roxbury, that message being "I'M NOT AN IDIOT," to which the citizen replies:

The rest of us don't share that sentiment.

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Free tagging: 


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Comments

Photograph the graffiti/cavepaintings of our times for future understanding of the past...

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The taggers usually do.

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One theory is that painting animals on walls in caves summoned their spirits; I assume this was based on the thought that animal (and perhaps the version of human) spirits were believed to exist underground until rising to the top (don't remember when the sky gods, Mt. Olmypus (still relatively Earth bound) and Heaven came into human thought).

So are graffiti taggers summoning? I still think it's an atavistic resort to metaphorically urinating on a spot to claim it as their own; an announcement to the world I am here, I exist. But then there are the gangsters who are pissing on buildings and walls and mail boxes and fences (metaphorically and physically) to claim territory. Then there are there gangsters who cross out the rival gangsters territorial claims as they claim territory.

Are criminal (and perhaps non-criminal gangs, including motorcycle police gangs who are as obnoxious with noise) atavistic throwbacks to a mentality where only might makes right and where the world is a vicious place where only brutality is the law of life?

We are fascinating creatures. Most mammals follow simple basic rules. Predictable, consistent, without significant deceit (apparently some simians can deceive). But homo sapien as a species seems caught between extremes of psychological rabidness and horrific group madness on the one end and true altruistic unconditional love and embracing loving society on the other. I guess it is a reflection of the idea that we are constantly pulled by both devils to do evil and angels to do good.

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