Revolution porn

Awhile ago I talked about "Mommy porn" which is the depiction of famous parents (Angenlina Jolie and Brad Pitt, say) on the covers of magazines with their incredible careers and packs of beautiful children.  Of course they don't actually raise those children themselves, so this is really just a ridiculous fantasy, hence the name.  A couple days ago I stumbled on an article that is of an entirely different type and which I think warrants the title "Revolution porn".  The article talks about the desperate situation in Greece and the violence and destruction that has been going on there.  It includes a picture of a police officer being burned by a fiery explosion created by some protester's homemade bomb.  The thing that makes my mind explode is that the author *celebrates* the violence, indeed he would have been crushed if there weren't arson and violent revolution in the streets of Athens.

The ridiculous fantasy here is that by burning down your neighbour's house or by trying to murder police officers you are striking a blow against the rich bankers who rule the world.  You aren't.  There are certainly police officers who are bad people that abuse their power to support awful regimes but the great majority of police really are normal people who are willing to do a hard and dangerous job to protect people from each other.  It must be tremendous fun to sit in an office in a country that is in pretty good shape and wax poetic about how wonderful it is to be a violent revolutionary and how much those random police officers deserve burning but the reality is something else entirely.  It is a fictional situation, one that is inspiring from a great distance and without thinking too much.

Random violence is not a useful response to this situation.  There are situations that do call for violent responses but your country's politicians trying to run a balanced budget does not warrant chucking firebombs at people.  I can almost imagine the author of the article sitting at his computer desk saying "Heh heh, they are totally burning those cops, heh heh" like a Beavis and Butthead video.  Is it understandable for someone to feel this way?  Sure!  There are plenty of people who want to see someone sticking it to the man and are glad they can do so from a long way away.  We shouldn't credit this desire with any more a glorious name than Revolution Porn though, because that is what it is.