London Riots

[ajay]

What a load of wank...

Quoting Ghandi has to be the most cliched, abhorant, spotlight seeking trash you could possibly say at a time like this...

What he should have said is: Despite me being a beneficiary of the highest order of the capitalist model. My opinions on the matter have zero merrit so I'll keep them to myself.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

^^^^ Hippies...

Meanwhile back on planet earth, here's Charlie Brooker's take on it all:

How to prevent more riots


Charlie Brooker
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 August 2011 20.00 BST


Like almost anyone who wasn't outside running around with a scarf over their face, I sat at home last week gawping at my TV screen in horror as English cities, including the one I live in, came under attack from their own citizens. It was a self-inflicted horror show, like a man repeatedly smacking himself in the teeth with a breezeblock. But nowhere near as funny.

Since I write for a newspaper, I am now legally required to write an agonised hand-wringing article in which I attempt to explain why the riots happened. Which is tricky because I don't have a clue. Some blame the parents. Or the education system. Or the economy. Or our unequal society. Or just the rioters themselves. I'd guess at some soupy combination of all the above.

Aside from the sheer mindless ferocity and violence, one of the most depressing aspects of the protracted smashup was the nature of the looting: time and again, shops selling trainers or gadgets were targeted first. Fancy shoes and electric widgets mark the peak of ambition. Every looter was effectively a child chanting: "Give me my toys, I want more toys. Look at the prick captured on video mugging the injured Malaysian student. Watch his unearned swagger as he walks away; the size of a man, yet he overdoes that swagger like a performing toddler. That's an idiot who never grew up.

Why the obsession with trainers? Trainers are shit. You stick them on your feet and walk around for a while 'til they go out of fashion. Whoopie doo. Yes, I know they're also status symbols, but anyone who tries to impress others with their shoe choice is a dismally pathetic character indeed – and anyone genuinely impressed by said footwear has all the soaring spirit of a punnet of moss. There's no life to be found in "look at my shoes". There just isn't.

In the smouldering aftermath, some politicians, keen to shift the focus from social inequality, have muttered darkly about the role of BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook – frightening new technologies that, like the pen and the human mouth, allow citizens to swap messages with one another. Some have even called for the likes of Twitter to be temporarily suspended in times of great national crisis. That'd be reassuring – like the scene at the start of a zombie movie where the news bulletin is suddenly replaced by a whistling tone and a stark caption reading PLEASE STAND BY. The last thing we need in an emergency is the ability to share information. Perhaps the government could also issue us with gags we could slip over our mouths the moment the sirens start wailing? Hey, we could still communicate if we really had to. Provided we have learned semaphore.

If preventing further looting is our aim, then as well as addressing the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, I'd take a long hard look at MTV Cribs and similar TV shows that routinely confuse human achievement with the mindless acquisition of gaudy bling bullshit. The media heaves with propaganda promoting sensation and consumption above all else.

Back in the 80s the pioneering aspirational soap opera Dallas dangled an unattainable billionaire lifestyle in front of millions, but at least had the nous to make the Ewing family miserable and consumed with self-loathing. At the same time, shows aimed at kids were full of presenters cheerfully making puppets out of old yoghurt pots, while shows aimed at teens largely depicted cheeky urchins copping off with each other in the dole queue. Today, whenever my world-weary eyes alight on a "youth show" it merely resembles a glossily edited advert for celebrity lifestyles, co-starring a jet-ski and a tower of gold. And regardless of the time slot, every other commercial shrieks that I deserve the best of everything. I and I alone. I'd gladly introduce a law requiring broadcasters to show five minutes of footage of a rich man dying alone for every 10 minutes of fevered avarice. It'd be worth it just to see them introduce it on T4.

If we were to delete all aspirational programming altogether, the schedules might feel a bit empty, so I'd fill the void with footage of a well-stocked Foot Locker window, thereby tricking any idiots tuning in on a recently looted television into smashing the screen in an attempt to grab the coveted trainers within.

Speaking of Foot Locker, if I were the CEO of Nike (which at the time of writing I'm not), I'd encourage Foot Locker to open special "decoy" branches near looting hotspots – unattended stores stocked full of trainers with soft sponge heels. Anyone pinching a pair of these would find it almost impossible to hoof in a window ever again. You'd be kicking fruitlessly at the glass for 15 years, making it less an act of spontaneous violence and more a powerful visual metaphor for your misguided existence.

But perhaps it's better to nip future trouble in the bud with the use of deterrents. Obviously a small percentage of the rioters are sociopaths, and you'll never make any kind of impression on their psyche without a cranial drill. But the majority should be susceptible to threats. Not violent ones – we're not animals – but creatively unpleasant ones. Forget the water cannon. Unleash the slurry cannon. That kind of thing.

Greater Manchester police has attracted attention by using Twitter as a substitute for the "perp walk": naming-and-shaming rioters by tweeting their personal details as they leave court. Not bad, but maybe not humiliating enough. Personally, I'd seal them inside a Perspex box glued to a billboard overlooking a main plaza for a week, where people can turn up and jeer at them. It's not totally inhumane: they would be fed through a tube in the top – but crucially, they would be fed nothing but cabbage, asparagus and figs, and since they wouldn't be allowed out for toilet breaks, it would be getting pretty unpleasant in there after 48 hours. And it would be a cheery pick-me-up for passersby.

 

[scblack]

^^^^ Hippies...

Meanwhile back on planet earth, here's Charlie Brooker's take on it all:

Thats a good article, none of this namby-pamby bullshit about "inequality" or "exclusion" or other pseudo-psycho babble.

The looters are arseholes who took their chance to steal some crap, or to break and burn some things. Not poor little lambs lost in the current state of our society.

 

[ajay]

Great read posm!

 

[wombat]

Thats a good article, none of this namby-pamby bullshit about "inequality" or "exclusion" or other pseudo-psycho babble.

The looters are arseholes who took their chance to steal some crap, or to break and burn some things. Not poor little lambs lost in the current state of our society.

Whilst I think you're right, I think you may also be missing the point that some of those with the 'psycho babble' are trying to raise.

Sure, the rioting showed a lot of low acts, and the perpetrators definately need to be dealt with appropriately as a first priority. You can't ignore though that there must be some sort of reason behind behaviour like this. Locking up the looters and trying to ignore the reason that got there in the first place is incredibly myopic if you ask me, because you'll just end up with a recurrence of the distrubance down the track.

I think what a lot of people are suggesting is that yeah, the offenders need to be dealt with, but England also needs to look at the societal issues that caused them to develop into shithead looters in the first place, to try and address them and prevent more kids from growing up to become the same.

You can give a fat person lipo, but if you keep letting them eat burgers and chips they're just going to get fat again.

 

[Spike-X]

What he should have said is: Despite me being a beneficiary of the highest order of the capitalist model. My opinions on the matter have zero merrit so I'll keep them to myself.

As opposed to all of us sharing our opinions of it on a message board on the other side of the world?

 

[scblack]

I think we will see more 'disruptions' in western societies.Too much wealth amongst too few people,too much unecessary technology,and a general 'where the hell is society headed' focus.
A lot of people work hard,but,especially in todays financial conditions,struggle to get ahead.
What in our society dictates what jobs are valued at.Seems to me,there are many people in jobs that earn a lot of money,but dont really contribute much towards a healthy society.
Where is western society heading,and are we on the right track?
Dont people matter more than money?

So your argument is thus: "There is too much inequality and we are having super-rich people with lots of possessions, which means the normal working person is feeling left out." Am I right in reading your argument?

If your argument was correct, and the reason for the riots was inequality, these riots should REALLY be happening in countries like India, Africa or some Asian countries. There are MANY MANY people so poor they are starving and living in cardboard boxes, with no medical facilities whatsoever.

How many of these English arseholes were at all hungry? Were they lacking in basic medical care? No, they genuinely have VERY LITTLE to be whinging about. They live in decent homes, even if they are council flats, many were university educated (except the kids of course), they were wearing expensive trainers etc.

No, I'll continue my argument that they are just some arseholes who took the chance to break and steal some stuff. Put it in perspective, unlike a street urchin in India they do NOT have a hard life at all.

 

[ajay]

As opposed to all of us sharing our opinions of it on a message board on the other side of the world?

Nit-pick if you wish, but re read Branson's communication...

How very easy it is to get all hoity toity about hippy notions of peace and equality when you're flying to each meeting aboard your private learjet.

So yes, as opposed to voicing our opinions on public forum.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

How many of these English arseholes were at all hungry? Were they lacking in basic medical care? No, they genuinely have VERY LITTLE to be whinging about. They live in decent homes, even if they are council flats, many were university educated (except the kids of course), they were wearing expensive trainers etc.

To be fair, they had just come from the front window of a JD Sports!

Class and social distinctions, single mums, violence in music, tv and cinema, boredom, too much cheap alcohol, racial tension, Police being too heavy-handed, Police being too lenient, the weather, David Cameron being a fucking arsehole, having a government that leads by example by engaging in corruption and massive rorting of expenses, parents not being allowed to hit their kids, kids coming from abusive homes, a materialistic society, Blackberrys, Twitter and Facebook have all been fingered at one time or another as being the "cause of all this madness" and I suppose each reason will have contributed in their own way at various levels but to put the blame down on any one thing, it would have to be human nature itself!

Mankind has always loved a bit of chaos and anarchy now and again. You get enough people together in a large group and it's very easy to get them riled up and running amok. Otherwise level-headed people lose their shit an get the red mist ALL THE TIME when they become part of the mob.

If you look through history from the sack of Rome to the French Revolution, the rise of the Nazi Party, Jonestown, Brixton, LA, pretty much every World Economic Forum, Football Hooliganism, Rwanda, Cronulla Beach and any suburban party that's foolishly been advertised on Facebook, people have been gleefully losing their collective shit at the drop of a hat for centuries.

London (and the rest of the country) is just yet another example. It'll might happen here too someday...

 

[Spike-X]

Seriously. You look ridiculous.

 

[Bermshot]

To be fair, they had just come from the front window of a JD Sports!

Class and social distinctions, single mums, violence in music, tv and cinema, boredom, too much cheap alcohol, racial tension, Police being too heavy-handed, Police being too lenient, the weather, David Cameron being a fucking arsehole, having a government that leads by example by engaging in corruption and massive rorting of expenses, parents not being allowed to hit their kids, kids coming from abusive homes, a materialistic society, Blackberrys, Twitter and Facebook have all been fingered at one time or another as being the "cause of all this madness" and I suppose each reason will have contributed in their own way at various levels but to put the blame down on any one thing, it would have to be human nature itself!

Mankind has always loved a bit of chaos and anarchy now and again. You get enough people together in a large group and it's very easy to get them riled up and running amok. Otherwise level-headed people lose their shit an get the red mist ALL THE TIME when they become part of the mob.

If you look through history from the sack of Rome to the French Revolution, the rise of the Nazi Party, Jonestown, Brixton, LA, pretty much every World Economic Forum, Football Hooliganism, Rwanda, Cronulla Beach and any suburban party that's foolishly been advertised on Facebook, people have been gleefully losing their collective shit at the drop of a hat for centuries.

London (and the rest of the country) is just yet another example. It'll might happen here too someday...

Apart from own belief this essentially is the crux. The world is a whole, some defy the pragmatism of ones such as Gandhi but science will necessarily rectify that fact. The cause sits in limbo currently as it has for millennia.

I saw (TV) a shit wasteful use of rebellion, them punks would be put in stocks upon my terms. No guidance, what a waste.

But hey! I can still be hung for what I am suggesting.

 

[FR Drew]

My take is that it's little different to the cronulla riots here. Sadly there are stupid meatheads everywhere. Doesn't matter if it's looting, tagging, putting a "west coast choppers" sticker on the back of your aging commodore, punching on at a nightclub, kicking in the spokes of a locked up bike, there will always be dickheads, and stupidity loves company.

Yes it would suck to live in council flats full of junkies with the stairwells full of piss, needles and broken bottles where no-one had had a regular job for years, but you can't blame the world for your circumstances. In most areas, work exists.
Sitting on the couch or selling drugs or mugging people is easier than work, and gets you more "cred" wiv da boyz.

Check out this guy:
http://www.operationcupoftea.com/
He sounds like every other person living in council flats, he wears the same clothes, but he's not joining in the riots, he thinks that they are shit and wants to do something positive. Why? Not because of his circumstances, but because he's not a total cock.

 

[dog boy]

Haha, I doubt very much he lives in a council flat. If he did he would have a shaved head be covered in gold chains and sovereign rings, dressed in an adidas or kappa track suit and most likely have a burbery cap on.

 

[Spike-X]

Haha, I doubt very much he lives in a council flat. If he did he would have a shaved head be covered in gold chains and sovereign rings, dressed in an adidas or kappa track suit and most likely have a burbery cap on.

It's good to see the art of stereotyping is still alive and well.