While looking for places to live, one develops a keen eye for things. One thing I look for in particular is vandalism. Having been a victim of numerous house and car break ins, I enjoy finding places to live where that won’t happen.
There’s one aspect of vandalism that really infuriates me, and in the last couple of months I can’t go anywhere without seeing it. Affluent suburbs, poorer suburbs, main roads, brand new fences, alley ways, shop fronts…
Tagging.
I like to think of it as poor man’s graffiti. I can’t drive past a sign or bus shelter or building site or freshly painted wall without seeing some below average citizen leaving their mark. I’d like to think it was just an uneducated kid who did it once and learnt his lesson. I fear that it’s both a) not just kids under 10 years of age, and b) repeat offenders.
Guess what? It takes zero or less than zero talent to tag something. You’re not cool, you’re not clever, and you’re certainly a waste of space. If you have to graffiti something to maintain your place in the world, then at least have the guts to develop your talent and turn it into a work of art. Signing your pretend name on someone else’s property just shows the rest of the world that you probably don’t deserve to be here.
Quit it.
Hale said,
January 29, 2009 @ 8:40 am
There was a segment on ABC news a few years ago about how the kids doing the tagging are usually older kids in high school, and the tag sometimes denotes approval of something else eg. one kid does a big piece of graffiti, and his mates tag it to say “that’s cool”. It’s a social status thing amongst idiots, so its hard to control.
Scratching the bus windows is something I don’t get though. In London they have 5 cameras in some of the busses, and an LCD screen downstairs flicking through each camera feed, so that people downstairs can see what the idiot kids are doing upstairs. Even that doesn’t completely work as a deterrent.
Also, with a rant like this, we are now officially old
Melinda said,
January 29, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Mmmm…old man rant…Love it!!
The glass etching pisses me off too, it just makes stuff look crap.
I feel like we got out of Friar John Way just in time, because the walls were being tagged more and more often. It makes the place look unloved, and too much like the ghetto.
Magdalena said,
January 29, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
I see tagging as the human equivalent of dogs p***ing on a piece of land to blatantly announce their presence and mark their territory. I must say though, I can’t recall ever seeing tagging in Perth’s more affluent suburbs. It’s a shame if things have deteriorated to the point where there’s really no escaping from it.
Kirstie said,
February 11, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Amen to everything Magdalena said – except that I have seen tagging in affluent suburbs. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
In other news: JASON!
Kirstie said,
May 17, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
No point having a blog if you’re not going to update it… x
Kirsidee said,
June 8, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
You should blog again…