I know the 1970s were the malaise decade for a lot of places, but the situation in the UK always seemed... malaisier than anywhere else. What was going on then? I see clips of children's shows from 1970s UK and a lot of them are just creepy and not age-appropriate.
Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
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Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#22I know the 1970s were the malaise decade for a lot of places, but the situation in the UK always seemed... malaisier than anywhere else. What was going on then? I see clips of children's shows from 1970s UK and a lot of them are just creepy and not age-appropriate.
Perhaps that was that lead poisoning from gasoline.
I wonder if anybody researched its effect on non-criminally inclined population.
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#23Skimming an Atlas Obscura article the day before yesterday and ordering the books 'Discovering Scarfolk' and 'The Scarfolk Annual' especially for the surveillance themed humor, I'm not surprised to find a post about Scarfolk on HN today ...
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/digging-through-the-ar...
I especially like the BBC 1 initiative, 'We watch you watching us.'
I really need to dig out my old copy of the Paranoia RPG and reactivate the old team.
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#24I know the 1970s were the malaise decade for a lot of places, but the situation in the UK always seemed... malaisier than anywhere else. What was going on then? I see clips of children's shows from 1970s UK and a lot of them are just creepy and not age-appropriate.
Nothing worked reliably due to constant industrial action. We had a low-level civil war due to the IRA, with bombings being almost routine. We felt like we would be the first to go if the cold war went hot, due to the strategic importance of the radar base at RAF Fylingdales and the USAF base at Greenham Common. The decade was underscored by a pervasive fear of total societal collapse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles#1970s
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#25Children and amphetamines, not hallucinogens, was the real-world solution to behavioral problems in schools... it's a bit dystopian. If you're one of those who feels they benefit from amphetamines, that's fine - but I imagine overprescription is an issue: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/us/schools-backing-of-beh... > "Last year, doctors wrote almost 20 million monthly prescriptions for the stimulants, according to…
Are you an AI?
I'm curious (not sarcasm) what it was specifically in the comment above that made you think it was AI, compared to other comments. I just read it and I dont see anything AI-ish.
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#26I know the 1970s were the malaise decade for a lot of places, but the situation in the UK always seemed... malaisier than anywhere else. What was going on then? I see clips of children's shows from 1970s UK and a lot of them are just creepy and not age-appropriate.
As a kid that grew up in the 80s in the UK and caught the tail end of the educational videos mentioned in the article - the government of the day did use brutal imagery to try to instil fear in kids back then.
I remember explicit imagery of burns from fireworks and … a really nasty “educational” video about a kid who tried to rescue a frisbee from an electricity substation that then dies of electrocution.
We had also had a couple of decades of low-effort brutalist city-centre architecture by then, and our dull, dark, drab, grey weather complements the dull, dark, drab grey concrete to make a dull, dark, drab grey life.
From what I recall, the economy was in the toilet at the time too, there were rolling blackouts, general strikes and all manner of things just falling apart.
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#27Bloody love the Scarfolk stuff.
As someone who didn’t live through the 70s in the UK, but did live through the 80s, I caught the tail end of the materials and design choices (because never let it be said that the British local government departments move with the times)… it reminds me of the old posters hanging around in town halls, and the older tv shows of the time.
I find the way that the designer has managed to amplify both some of the dystopian images of the time, but also make a pastiche of exaggerated blandness into comedy, to be quite genius.
“Don’t” went round all the social media sites at the start of lockdown too!
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#28> I finally discovered that I hadn’t imagined it—it’s a 1977 public information film called “The Finishing Line,” which was made to deter children from playing near railway lines. The film was screened at my junior school
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#29I know the 1970s were the malaise decade for a lot of places, but the situation in the UK always seemed... malaisier than anywhere else. What was going on then? I see clips of children's shows from 1970s UK and a lot of them are just creepy and not age-appropriate.
As a counterpoint, my 1970s (though full of C8H20Pb) were not very malaisey: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39084117
(there was MAD of course, but being young I had confidence then that people, being basically good, would figure out how to avert the Big One. Maybe it would help if we could all dial in to some computer network and type directly with one another? Surely that would usher in world peace!)
Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)
#30Skimming an Atlas Obscura article the day before yesterday and ordering the books 'Discovering Scarfolk' and 'The Scarfolk Annual' especially for the surveillance themed humor, I'm not surprised to find a post about Scarfolk on HN today ... https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/digging-through-the-ar... I especially like the BBC 1 initiative, 'We watch you watching us.' I really need to dig out my old copy of the Par…
The Computer obviously can't have its feelings hurt, but I'm sure, Borrible-R-3, that whenever it gets around to running a sentiment analysis on its reaction to your proposal to host a game making light of and casting aspersions on its efforts to protect and serve its human masters, it will find it codes as ... disappointed.