Oliver Wendell Douglas wrote:
Mods (only read a few paragraphs so far ) ..... kinda like well dressed biker gangs, then
?. The scooters wouldn't have earned many macho points Stateside , though
.
The thing is, it was nowhere that simple. The fighting was the result of over-hyped press coverage. Like with any youth movement, the establishment can become very worried and tends to over-react. We saw the same thing happen with punk. Although punk was not a youth movement per se, it did scare the bejaysis out of the powers that be. And so frightened other 'good' people as well.
Violence enters these situations by design, never by accident. When certain ideas are publicly put forward by so-called experts, it results in an intentional call to arms of opposing forces. In other words, those who have access to stirring the pot will always use that advantage to it's fullest to insure others will do their dirty work. The best way to attempt to stop anything is to give the impression that the common man will just not endure whatever it is which offends their masters. The proverbial 'self-fulfilling prophesy', if you like.
Mods were essentially about style. In clothing, in music, and definitely astethics. The scooter became the choice of Mods because of it's design aesthetic was considered exotic (Italian). And that it was easy to drive, easy to park, easy to maintenance and incredibly efficient. Rocker's preferred large, British-made bikes which the general public were also encouraged to see as intimidating. The strangest thing is, generally most Mods and Rockers were usually right-leaning, but for entirely different reasons. But that is a whole other major discourse.
The thing is scooters were accessories for Mods and so really were not required whereas with Rockers, their bikes were essentially their centre. The one thing that represented who they were. It is a very detailed story to try and explain here as more pages have been written about Mods than any other youth group in history.
But initially, Mods and Rockers had little to no contact with each other as they were socially diametrically opposed.
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