Anarchy Today, Everyday Tomorrow

by Will Hedges

(written 11 April 2013)

I was not going to do my final blog post about this, but I couldn't not write about the student riot I saw on TV.

Today, I went to Café Comics with Neely and Delaney. I had already heard that it would probably be a little difficult to get around Santiago today for the student riot, we had seen the Carabineros all over the place today, but nothing too out of the normal.

Except for the news.

The news was wild. The student riot was completely out of control. I saw police in the streets with paintball guns, countless canisters of tear gas thrown, a massive police truck/tank spraying water at anyone running towards it. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen.

However, it was even crazier because I was there. How many times have you seen rioting on TV? For me, countless times, but this was going on a mere four metro stops from my apartment. I even asked the waitress in disbelief it it was live footage. She said yes, seeming completely unfazed.

It was a proverbial train wreck - I came here to get homework done, but I couldn't look away from the TV on the wall. My jaw hit the floor when I saw a bottle fall toward one of the water tanks and the top of the truck burst into flame. I saw a molotov cocktail thrown on TV, not even a thirty minute walk from where I was sipping a latte.

And that just stopped me.

I'm not sure if I'm amazed by what's actually going on or the fact that it's become so commonplace that it doesn't bother anyone here anymore, save for the Carabineros and the kids involved, I suppose. How many times did it happen before everyone got so complacent? As far as I can tell, people don't really remember when it started. Profe Juan goes to the protests (obviously not the riots), but even he and Viviana said that just as often as not, it descends into this chaos. It's not even a surprise.

My question is, how do people ignore it? It lasts for an afternoon, people tear down the street signs and the bus stops, everything's covered in paint, but everyone just goes on tomorrow. These kids go home, take off their bandanas, wash off the paint, and go back to school, their jobs, the skatepark. Anarchy today, everyday tomorrow.