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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)

#81

Post by jackcosgrove »

hermitcrab wrote: post #72
jdietrich wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/T…

I was born in 1966 and have been noting how much the 2020s feel like the 1970s in the UK: pessimism, inflation, industrial action and a feeling of decline.

I did not live through the 70s, and I'm not British, but I have heard people say the same about the US now. That there is a sense of exhaustion comparable to the 1970s.

If I could put on my sociologist hat, I would say it's due to demographics. The 1970s were the "trough of disillusionment" for the baby boomers as their youthful idealism faded, and we're seeing something similar as the similarly large echo boom generation ages.

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#82

Post by YurgenJurgensen »

trelane wrote: post #9

My favourite, from almost 4 years ago: https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/2020/03/social-distancing-laws...

Given how many people are comparing Scarfolk favourably to Look Around You, I think this image highlights why I feel like it falls well short of that comparison.

Looking at the dates on the blog posts, this is more "(then) current year politics in the style of 1970s British local authority PSAs" than anything that actually feels rooted in the time period of the style it's using. There's ones about COVID in 2020, ones about the election in 2019, ones about Brexit in 2017 and so on.

It's not bad, but I could almost look through the posters to see the author's Twitter feed at points.

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#83

Post by radiowave »

ycombinete wrote: post #61
pavel_lishin wrote: post #15

Whenever I leave a job, or an office closes down, I print up a few copies of the Kak poster, and leave them hidden around: https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-dont-campaign-and-... I've also gotten the Scarfolk book, and it is genuinely a weirdly creepy piece of art.

Kak literally means “shit” in Afrikaans. Which makes this even funnier for me to read.

That meaning is also understood in the UK.

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#84

Post by Nursie »

denton-scratch wrote: post #62
Nursie wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. That's right, except the bit about "general strikes". There were flying pickets: workers would travel across the country to support strikes by workers in other industries, rather like football fans. But to the best of my knowledge, the only General Strike in t…

Ah fair enough, was a little before my time!

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#85

Post by lukan »

hermitcrab wrote: post #71
UncleSlacky wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to forget the classic "Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water" narrated by Donald Pleasance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNPMYRlvySY

Couple that with 'children's' TV program "The singing ringing tree" and it is a wonder any of us grew up even vaguely normal.

How would you know how sane people would act, if all the people around you were raised similar?

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#86

Post by ycombinete »

radiowave wrote: post #83
ycombinete wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kak literally means “shit” in Afrikaans. Which makes this even funnier for me to read.

That meaning is also understood in the UK.

Seems like they share a root:

cack (slang) faeces (feces); nonsense or rubbish: "what a load of cack" could equally be used to describe someone talking nonsense or as a criticism of something of poor quality. Also spelt "kak" as used in Afrikaans and Dutch. Derived from an ancient Indo-European word, kakkos, cognate with German word Kacke, Welsh word "cach" and the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word "cac" which all mean 'shit'.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_British_terms_no....

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#89

Post by [deleted] »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #57
jdietrich wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/T…

Interesting to see the three day week being blamed on industrial action. The industrial action was caused by workers losing spending power because of insane oil price inflation shocks. The government used this to cut public sector pay. The shocks were caused by Arab-led OPEC objecting to US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur war, and the US was just as affected. https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Oil_crisis_of…

[deleted]

Re: Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)

#90

Post by cookie_monsta »

dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #78
cookie_monsta wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Modern slavery system" is hilarious Admittedly, their modern system is a huge improvement over v1

Quote: “Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors”

Hmm, cute but I think all this talk of wage slavery kind of downplays the horror of the original.

I mean I don't like getting up in the morning either, but really?

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