When I went out for a stroll round the estate this morning, the Twitter feed was alive with the hashtag, #iamspartacus. I guess they have forgotten that all the Spartaci in said film ended up crucified. But the event behind this mass folk movement is the original tweet by Paul Chambers in which he threatened - or rather didn't - to blow up the ludicrously-named "Robin Hood Airport", closed due to bad weather, if they didn't open before he had to fly from it the following week. As is now Social Networking history, Mr Chambers ended up in court, charged with sending threatening messages, and was fined. He's now received an even bigger financial penalty after appealing. Mr Stephen Fry is offering to pay Paul Chambers' fine. I'm hoping that if I drive around in a tweed jacket the whole time, Mr Fry might also offer to pay for my speeding fines.
But I digress. The point is that this morning, everybody was tweeting the original "threat" - in effect challenging the CPS to do anything about it. By this evening, everybody was digressing off into post-modern and ironic comments about the #iamspartacus phenomenon, rather than the original tweet. That's the trouble with Twitter - we get very excited about it, and feel the buzz of being part of a worldwide phenomenon - for ten minutes. You can feel very daring and anti-establishment from the comfort of your sofa. Which, to be fair, is miles better than throwing stuff off high buildings in London to ask people to give you money. But by tomorrow, Paul Chambers will still be fined, the law will still be an ass, the CPS will be trying to prosecute some Christian for having an icon in the workplace, and nobody will care anymore. And on Twitter, the new hashtag du jour will be something to do with the X-factor.
The fad of the Fake Revolution, as opposed to anything real. Indeed. Thanks for your post!
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