By P Henry
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-honiton-hot-pennies-ceremony-1979-online
Traditional “Hot Penny” is celebrated today in Honiton, Devon. Going back ~1000 years, where the rich tossed hot coins to the poor as “local gentry enjoying the view as the peasants burnt themselves trying to pick up the pennies.”
This, with other contemporary stories and images, act as symbols to reinforce control: the powerful over less powerful people. Its subtle organisation of our perception, which we daily accept as normal stuff, actually is control over our minds, hegemony repelling resistance or change. How often are the normal people’s gains, victories and actions to gain meaningful rights celebrated?
‘The good old days’, even when appearing quaint, are foundations for faults & meanings today. Sophisticated modern democracy allows for seeing things as jokes while concealing how they reinforce inequality. So the general public is maintained in passivity and obedience.
Leave a Reply