10 Membranes

G20

Watching footage from the riots today in the City I was struck by the predominance of media in the crowds. The BBC zoned in on a line of riot police surging against a mass of dreadlocked protesters.

But wait, whats that. Half of them are holding cameras, big cameras, big press pap cameras, and they’re waving and clicking them.

The line of rioters has more cameramen in it than rioters. The media itself is the riot. It is the event it is covering.

There is a simplification here of course, but one can’t help feeling that as the summit goes on London becomes ever more Baudrillardian and millenial. The Beast, the roaring of Wembley, the blistering ashes of “Late Capitalism”, the collision and sparring of Great Power diplomacy; London again the fulcrum of the world, both projecting power and influence and vulnerable like it has rarely been vulnerable before.

All the while the story feeds on itself, takes on a logic of it’s own, we don’t have any idea what will happen next.