Hate the Tagging not the Taggers
I hate tagging! I am sure there are more abominable, more profoundly evil things, that are more worthy of my ire, but nothing sets me off more than tagging. Tagging is the next step in the evolution of young, urban frustration, which was originally seen in graffiti. If I may make a distinction between graffiti and tagging, I would say that graffiti tries to approximate the norms of artistic expression, though it does so on illegitimate canvases. Tagging by contrast is indecipherable, chicken-scratch foisted upon any surface whatsoever. A tagger tagging is of the same species as a dog that lifts its leg and pees everywhere. Both the dog and the tagger are just marking their territory.
I have dreams of enacting revenge upon taggers. I imagine tracking them down to their houses, binding them to a chair, and forcing them to watch me tag, in the same indecipherable and arcane fashion, every bit of property they have. I would then tag every article of clothing they have on and finish with a big, fat tag on their forehead. After that, I would leave them to wallow and suffer in the wrath that has befallen them. I guess this means (God forgive me) that I hate taggers as well.
I cannot specifically say why I have this incommensurable hatred of tagging, but I know that it comes from my aesthetic drive. I love beauty, and beautiful things, and I want to live in a beautiful world, and tagging is a visual reminder that things aren’t so beautiful. I realize of course, that the ultimate solution to the problem of tagging is not just to deal with taggers. I understand that there are complex issues at work in a culture that creates the kind of frustrations where tagging becomes prevalent. Thus, I want to be free from my wrathful dreams and move beyond this antipathy that I have for taggers. In a variation on a cliché, I want to hate the tagging and not the taggers, and this attitude is what I am working on. In the meantime, however, if you catch me with a far off look in my eyes and a smile on my face, you will know what it’ all about.
Wrote the following comment on October 20th, 2005 at 8:08 pm #
I think I’ve heard this story. From you. Didn’t you start this in a group? At the time you were reading, I was concerned that you were in fact a very angry person. I feel better now, knowing that this is in fact your first hate offering into the (internet) world. If I see a tagger, I will club them for you.
Wrote the following comment on October 21st, 2005 at 12:58 am #
Andria, Thanks for visiting my site and responding. Like all us literary types who write, I love to be read.
I don’t usually express such negative feelings, but I have to admit it felt empowering to vent in this fashion. One thing I have learned is that it is easier to express antipathy toward people in the abstract, or toward a generalized group, but never quite so easy when dealing with a concrete individual. I guess in such instances we are confronted with their humanity. Anyways, I have known many taggers, and the worse I may have done to them is verbally berate them for perpetuating such juvenile and ugly behavior.
However, if you want to club taggers for my sake, I will not stop you!!!
Wrote the following comment on October 25th, 2005 at 1:39 am #
I just noticed, when you respond you are called ‘Administrator’ which sounds very official. Kinda like calling the boy Bush “Mr President.” So from this day I think I shall refer to you as “Mr Administrator.” I also remember that i need to do that thing for you on this wonderful little blog that i have neglected these last few days.
So tagging. Not much to say on the subject apart from we don’t have a tagging problem around these parts. Hard as it may seem to imagine, we do indeed have gangsters and the such, but they prefer to stand around on street corners and perfect that lop sided look. You know the one, where they stand around looking moody and threatening while trying to make passers by wonder if they really do have one arm un-natrally longer than the other.
Wrote the following comment on October 25th, 2005 at 7:55 am #
One day everyone will call me The Administrator
Wrote the following comment on August 29th, 2006 at 3:57 am #
well if you tried to tie me to a chair, i would use my NY fat cap on my thrashed can of krylon and spray it in your eyes.