Jun 4, 2021
Rollers
Post COVID movement on four wheels
Difficult periods always bring something authentic. Something so romantic that it defies the hardship society is going through. Something that, a cynic would say, mocks the current system because it is beyond it.
COVID has brought roller skaters.
The roller skating movement has been on the rise in London ever since the first lockdown was announced in the United Kingdom. To escape the fear that was spreading like radiation, people started gathering on basketball courts of London to roll. Authorities would lock the courts, but rollers would find a way to meet and grow their community. As the lockdown was easing, more and more people were joining the movement. Suddenly, hundreds had their first pair of roller skates and they were rolling in the rhythm of freedom.
“I have never spoken with anybody about COVID here,” said Alex, who works as a maths and physics teacher.
“Some of these people…” he pointed at the rollers. “You don’t want to mess up with. Those are tough people. But rolling has melted everybody, though. So now, instead of selling drugs, they are rolling.”
Alex, or Mr. C as he calls himself, started rolling during the pandemic.
“But the best thing is, there are people from all sort of life situations — from council houses, from expensive houses. People with jobs, people in between jobs… There are many creative people among us as well.”
In the previous blog, I wrote about anarchism as a byproduct of the dictatorship which has been manifesting in different forms within the last year or so. Even though anarchists are now using the term ‘awakening’ and calling people to ‘awake’, to join their movement, that is not really awakening. As dictatorship and anarchism are two parallel processes and different faces of the same coin, anarchism is just a force that is demolishing the current system. In the end, anarchism will transform into a new system, impose new fears, new prohibitions and suppress new liberties.
However, anarchism is not the only movement that has been taking place recently. Difficult periods also force people to reflect and start digging deep into themselves in search for something bigger, which leads to the true awakening and rise of collective consciousness. The rollers might be representing that. Those are the people who don’t talk about COVID, about Boris Johnson and Brexit. Those are the people who don’t mind who is vaccinated or not, who wear masks or not. They are beyond the ultimate division that is taking place in society. They are not taking sides. They are not lockdowners nor anti-vaxxers. They are beyond that. They are just spinning around with the earphones stuck in their ears and listening to their music.
Jay is one of the few who had been rolling before the pandemic hit. He is here to share his knowledge to the newcomers.
“When I started rolling 12 years ago, there were eight of us. The rolling movement had been rising, but it was ceased by the recession in 2008. And now the COVID times have put us back together, and there are more people than ever. We are different people with different ideas, but we have one thing in common — we like rolling.”
