Freed from its function in the economy, this theater broke down into a collection of boards, metal, tools and food. You realize that, like muzak, all pieces of merchandise have their special qualities piped in from the outside. Fur coats, BMWs and credit cards mean nothing when the framework of society is drained away. Our present system has gone further in showing how the normalcy of daily routine comes from meaning telegraphed in from afar. Daily Life seems normal only because everyone thinks work, prestige, and property will continue tomorrow and the day after.
Panic is natural when things seem to change from nothing.
Riots get their explosive force from a simultaneous change in everyone's expectations. As we've seen, this easily erases scientifically formulated happy consensus of the media. All these things are fragments of a new life trying to come into existence. It exists already as potential, not matter how much effort they spend trying to crush it. It exists in any project where a group of the dispossessed directly and collectively realizes their desires.