I see, in a wire story from the Telegraph in today’s newspaper, that a threat to the new world order has been identified. I thought I would share this news with my fellow Dopers. Did this story show up in any American newspapers?
An estimated 1,000 aficionados of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings go out to the Tian Shen mountains outside of the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan, build forts, dress up, and re-enact Tolkein adventures.
Kazakhstan is a former Soviet Union state. These Tolkeinisti are viewed as “subversive”, counter-cultural", “Bohemian”. They are beaten by police, jailed without charges, forced to remove their costumes on the street, their toy swords and axes are seized, and bribes are extorted. A young woman art student Tolkeinisti said “The police and soldiers stop us because we are different. They believe if you are different from everyone else you are against everyone else.” The article says “the police and soldiers are products of Kazakhstan’s rigidly conformist police and military academies, where brutal initiation rites are routine”. Also included in the campaign against “Bohemian” traits are street musicians, “alternative” artists. homosexuals, and punk rock bands.
Kazakhstan will be ready when a G-8 summit comes to town.