The Battle of Battersea

 
Tom Moriarty, Occupier, contemplates the closure and now monetisation of the children’s adventure playground in Battersea Park

 

Well I really shouldn’t have to say too much about this but I would ask you to please contemplate the implications, for example, the turning of a children’s playground into a profit centre, the segregation of children based on income in a ‘public’ playground, the mental conditioning that sends to a 4 yr old, and what that does for society’s next generation. Perhaps think about the connection between bankers, austerity, cuts, reduced services..and sold off games fields and playgrounds. And yes, one has to question at what point, if we look at this current version of capitalism, this economic engine, is it really serving us, at least most of us or are we serving it.

 

Defending Battersea children's playground from closure

Defending Battersea children’s playground from closure

To what degree is it serving society and is it not time, at this stage in our evolution at the beginning of the 21st Century, to take a look under the bonnet? There are many signs that it is not working in the best interests of humanity, that it is not functioning to the benefit of society, for example, price hikes in a recession or indeed the closure or monetisation of a children’s playground. It’s just a playground and that may seem insignificant and ‘innocuous’ but that’s one of the most dangerous words in the English language, along with words likes apathy and propoganda. It’s a sign all the same, a tiny crack perhaps in a fault line to a burgeoning and ambitious chasm. What next on that path? Well for now, let’s stay in our green and pleasant spaces. One can envisage one day there will be a charge for taking your hound for a walk, automated in the gates, reading the data encoded in the chip they will all have by 2016, a canine congestion charge, a premium park for a premium pooch. Can that be right? Is this the social-economics of the future or is the tail wagging the dog?…
 

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