"I always feel more comfortable in chaotic surroundings. I don't know why that is. I think order is dull. There is something about this kind of desire for order, particularly in Anglo Saxon cultures, that drive out this ability for the streets to become a really exotic, amorphous, chaotic, organic place where ideas can, basically, develop"
About this Quote
The barb lands when he name-checks “Anglo Saxon cultures,” not as anthropology but as an accusation. He’s poking at a British (and broadly Northern European) fixation on tidiness, rules, and public decorum, implying that this obsession doesn’t just organize life; it sterilizes it. “Drive out” is the key verb. Order isn’t neutral here; it’s a force of eviction, pushing out the “exotic” and the “organic” in favor of management. The street becomes a battleground between lived improvisation and bureaucratic control.
Context matters: punk wasn’t merely loud music; it was an argument about who gets to author culture. McLaren frames the street as an idea-lab, “amorphous” enough for new scenes to form before they’re policed, branded, or sanitized. There’s irony in that, too: he champions anti-order spontaneity while speaking like a strategist who knows exactly how useful chaos is when you’re trying to make something feel urgent, dangerous, and new.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Mclaren, Malcolm. (2026, January 16). I always feel more comfortable in chaotic surroundings. I don't know why that is. I think order is dull. There is something about this kind of desire for order, particularly in Anglo Saxon cultures, that drive out this ability for the streets to become a really exotic, amorphous, chaotic, organic place where ideas can, basically, develop. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-feel-more-comfortable-in-chaotic-104040/
Chicago Style
Mclaren, Malcolm. "I always feel more comfortable in chaotic surroundings. I don't know why that is. I think order is dull. There is something about this kind of desire for order, particularly in Anglo Saxon cultures, that drive out this ability for the streets to become a really exotic, amorphous, chaotic, organic place where ideas can, basically, develop." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-feel-more-comfortable-in-chaotic-104040/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I always feel more comfortable in chaotic surroundings. I don't know why that is. I think order is dull. There is something about this kind of desire for order, particularly in Anglo Saxon cultures, that drive out this ability for the streets to become a really exotic, amorphous, chaotic, organic place where ideas can, basically, develop." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-feel-more-comfortable-in-chaotic-104040/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
