I Don't " Get " Graffiti ......

[nachoman]

Be careful here, guys.

Every time this subject comes up on a model railroad forum, it results in a locked thread

I'm sure "graffiti" has been extensively studied by sociologists. I've seen it on the walls inside Mammoth cave, where visitors couldn't resist writing their names and leaving a message - over 100 years ago. I've heard where archaeologist speculate that some cave art and petroglyphs may be nothing more than "graffiti". People have carved initials onto trees and park benches for ages. And I will guess that at some point, more than half the people alive today once wrote their name or a message on a bathroom stall or a school desk when they were a kid.

I think modern graffiti follows the same line - people (mostly adolescents) who feel they are nobody want to become somebody, and marking up public property is one way to step out of the crowd. If you notice, most of the graffiti is placed in locations where it will be visible - for a reason. That's why railroad cars are targets - they are a large "canvas" often parked unprotected in a mostly invisible location, until the train moves and then everybody sees it. I think the progression of graffiti from simple initials or names to designs that cover a whole wall follows the development and availability of spray paint.

Yeah, I don't like it, either. But I have resigned to the fact that mix adolescent human social nature with convenience of spray paint and it's inevitable.