Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Riots In England

Root causes.
"Only two groups of people seem to be getting a kick out of the rioting in England.

Firstly the rioters themselves, the nihilistic urban youth who are getting cheap thrills from looting shops, bashing bus stops, and burning down houses. And secondly middle-class radicals, trustafarians who live off daddy's cash, who get a rush of political adrenalin whenever they see blacks burning stuff because it shows that "the oppressed are fighting back!"

These two sections of British society might look and sound very different from each other, with the former more likely to wear tracksuits and trainers and to speak in urban cockney slang, while the latter is usually decked out in skinny jeans and tortoise-shell glasses and speaks with an easy-to-spot "mockney" twang. But they share some important traits, helping to explain their weird meeting of minds over recent riotous behaviour.

Firstly, neither side contributes a great deal to everyday society, the rioters being largely unemployed or even unemployable youth, and their middle-class cheerleaders being either permanent students or professional campaigners. Secondly, both sides live off other people:"
[---]
"Modern-day rioting, of both the posh and poor varieties, is not motivated by a desire to exercise autonomy, by a striving to live independently and experimentally, but rather by a belief that one should always be looked after and cared for and cooed over. In our therapeutic, welfare-entrenched age, our era of Oprah-style victimology, it seems that youth on both sides of the track run the risk of conceiving of themselves as permanent victims of powerful forces."
You know. I'm beginning to think we're gonna be alright. The cult of victimology is being exposed for what it is and soundly beaten.

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