Very Important Video: The Real Source of the British Riots

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 4:55PM Gilad Atzmon

 

The statistics, sociology, police brutality, massive food price increases and economic catastrophes behind the recent and continuing riots in Britain. From Freedomain Radio, the largest and most popular philosophy show on the web -- http://www.freedomainradio.com Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/briots2

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Gilad Atzmon: London Riots and the Big Picture

Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 2:54AM Gilad Atzmon

It is astonishing to find that the British press that is so quick to tell us about the ‘true’ nature and motivations behind each mass protest in the Arab world, is somehow intellectually lame in its attempt to grasp their own huge scale riots at home. Until now, I have failed to see even a single worthy analytical attempt to understand the full meaning or significance of the current violent events taking place on the streets of cities all over the UK. British papers have been outlining the events as being driven by, associated with, and defined by hooliganism. They talk to the victims, and sometime even manage to interview some protagonists and perpetrators.

But, amongst such shallow, sensationalist coverage, we are still missing the most important information. What is the demography of the riots? Who is leading it? Does it have any leaders? Is there an ideology behind it all? Why do they loot, what do they loot, and from whom do they loot? And most importantly, what is the meaning of it all?

The events we saw in the past week in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester were possible signs of disintegration within British society. Some sectors within the society were clearly saying “we have had enough of it.” The truth is that these people we see rioting on our streets have been drifting away for quite some time, and no one has shown any concern, and now they are clearly not interested anymore in obedience to any notions of law and order. They do not see any great value in it. And the reason for that may be simple -- there is simply not much in it for them.
What we see in Britain is not a political protest. It is not a battle with any coherent call for justice. Neither is it an outburst of mere racial hatred. It is none of those things -- and yet, considered in its entirety, it comprises and manifests all of those factors at once. It is actually a rejection of the entire system. It is a clear manifestation and forceful expression of generations who have lost all hope in a society that does not convey any prospect of a future for them -- what we now see in British cities is young people who are putting the current system on trial. It is a spontaneous eruption of a demand for recognition.
For the obvious reasons not many in Britain are willing to listen to the desperate and urgent message voiced by the deprived. But I think that we must try to understand what is going on here.
If you want to know why the British media fail to understand what is happening, the answer is fairly straightforward – though they are there to transmit an image and appearance of freedom of speech, liberty and the spirit of enlightenment, large parts of the British media are deeply embedded as an inherent part of a wider system which they serve and bolster.

As a nation, we claim to believe in democracy -- though we often enough kill en masse in the name of freedom. Closer to the truth is the fact that we are submerged in a culture of self-love, and hence, we simply find it impossible to imagine that anyone within our proximity would dismiss our ‘greatness.’ And yet, here is the bad news -- it is clearly all spinning out of control now -- for far too long, we have been celebrating our ‘greatness’ at the expense of our underprivileged neighbours. Clearly, our next door neighbours do not buy into this notion of freedom and liberty, since they do not posses the means to celebrate such freedom: they are left out, excluded from the game.

When I was young, I used to wonder what I would do when I had to finally support myself, and indeed, there were many options to choose from: education was available for most of us; but more than anything else, there were jobs to be found, since there were many different industries. I knew, for instance, that I would always be able to at least settle in a factory job and support myself and my future family. But Britain doesn’t offer any of that anymore. There are no jobs. There are no industries, and from this year, higher education will not be a viable option for countless youngsters.

Tragically enough, our politicians do not appear to be at all concerned with these matters: British politicians, much like other Western politicians, seem impervious to the austere challenges faced by our youth, and the implications of all of these events for their future and their sense of hope. It has been convincingly argued that Western Liberal democracy is simply there to merely set parameters, and to create the appropriate conditions for big businesses. Such a state of affairs is certainly true in Britain. The democratic system in Britain can be more accurately described as a form of subtle, perfidious and devious political oppression that simply gives the appearance of the ‘true reflection of our own will’. It gives the false impression that ultimately, the current order is nothing but fulfillment and reflection of ‘our own personal choice.’

The truth of the matter is actually far simpler -- the Western political system is there to maintain consumerism, and to keep big business going. Our civil freedom is reduced to a simple set of entitlements: we are free to consume, to buy, to spend, to purchase, to acquire, to lease, to hire, and to rent. And yet, there is a big problem here that will not go away, because as we move up the ladder of our consumer existence, more and more people are falling behind. As the more fortunate among us proceed upward, more and more youngsters are realising that they will never even be able to join the game.

On the one hand we are subject to a ‘dictatorship of commoditisation’; we are trained to identify with a set of gadgets and brands, and yet, on the other hand, an increasing number of the people around us are left out -- they can barely afford to possess these objects of desire, and find themselves removed from the ‘identity game’. They become faceless, their existence denied, left to wander, ghost-like, wrapped in training suits in a society driven by ruthless hard capitalism and sheer greed.

Such a reading of the riots in London may well help us to grasp the fact that many looters were apparently happy to be pictured by the press as they were seen in the streets with their new possessions. For the first time, they also had a chance to join the Western ‘symbolic order’. They smile at the camera, showing off their entry card into our society. They don’t want to be faceless anymore -- they insist to be seen.

Lamentably enough, British politicians seem to be very enthusiastic about ‘moral interventionism’ in other countries. But I believe that the time is ripe for Britain to be subjected to a true form of moral interventionism -- an influx of spiritual ideas that would redeem us all from mammon-seeking and hard Capitalism. Yet it is increasingly clear that within the British political spectrum we will not find any such force that could lead to such a transformation, and that is indeed both a volatile and tragic situation.

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"Rebels Without a Cause in London’s Tahrir Square"

A building in London set on fire after it was ransacked by the looters.

“Could those riots be related to the Norway bombing? Will the aftermath reveal the true reason behind these copycat lootings and arsons? Are we going to witness another example of multiculturalism failure, or rather provoked to the point of failure, in yet another European capital?”

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

A lot of pundits and opinion makers held back from rushing into commenting on the rioting that’s been taking place in London and other British main cities over the last few days simply because they were overawed by the unbelievably horrifying and unprecedented pictures of the seemingly mindless thuggery, vandalism and theft that were being broadcast live around the globe.
Great Britain, the European nation with the long legacy of unshakeable social traditions and respect for freedoms and private properties was being humiliated and embarrassed before the whole world by some groups of its new generation of small boys and girls.
You can comment on events you can understand but how could you react to eventualities that you don’t even believe you’re beholding.

Rioting for fun

The brazen looting by often drunk kids, who seemed to get a kick out of setting the city ablaze, made this whole inferno in need of behavioral sociology and psychiatry experts, and not the op-ed writers, to delve into this grotesque situation and analyze the reasons behind it.


YouTube - Veterans Today -London Riot Girls 'Brag' About Violence

The British police has not been the only party caught by surprise by this unprecedented rioting the British government, as clearly shown by Mr. Cameron statements, has not been less startled or bewildered but that doesn’t make him or his government less responsible for it.

Mr. Cameron has referred to the riots as acts of pure criminality that could not be accepted or justified by any means but while that statement struck a chord in the British house of parliament it demonstrated a total ignorance and lack of understanding on the part of Cameron’s government of the nature of the breakdown in the British society.

Mark Duggan

Looking at the footages and pictures of the London riots, released by the mainstream media and uploaded on the web, we couldn’t help noticing that all of the rioters are simply kids in their mid-teens. And yet those kids sowed fear and did harm to their communities like never been witnessed since the London blitz.
All this talk about how this anarchy was triggered by the killing of a Tottenham black man, 29 -year-old, Mark Duggan or trying to historically relate it to the Brixton riots of the early eighties somehow seems hardly relevant to the completely disproportionate violence and copycat looting and vandalism that erupted afterwards.

Remembering Egypt riots

In Egypt a similar incident of the killing of an Alexandria resident, 28-year-old, Khalid Saeed, by two police detectives who beat him to death last year has considerably sparked and contributed to the first mass rallies that led to the January 25 uprising.

Khalid Saeed

But the rallies and the thousands who took to the streets of Alexandria and Cairo were peaceful protesters who rallied for undeniably good and just cause with specific demands that primarily called for political freedoms, equality and social justice.

But when we turn back to the British riots we fail to see any obvious criteria to help us recognize it as political or socio-economic upheaval and as the famous comedian, John Bishop condemned the violence on Richard Bacon’s BBC 5 live programme and said: “None of us really know what’s driving it. It’s not rioting for any political reason, it’s not rioting for any social motivation, it’s not even rioting for a materialistic reason because once the lootings done why set fire to the building? And that to me, gives some sort of indication that people don’t feel socially connected to the environment they’re in.”
Similar looting and arson have racked major Egyptian cities during the uprising but later we discovered that those acts of vandalism were preplanned by the Mubarak regime loyalists and his state security apparatus. Will the coming days reveal a hidden link to the London riots?

Could those riots be related to the Norway bombing? Will the aftermath reveal the true reason behind these copycat lootings and arsons? Are we going to witness another example of multiculturalism failure, or rather provoked to the point of failure, in yet another European capital?

War on terrorism and the European looming recession

Young Londeners wearing hoods looting stores in broad daylight.

I think while the successive British governments have been engaged and fully preoccupied in allying with the United States in the so called global war on terrorism, the British policy makers, and a lot of other European governments, have overlooked the plausibility that by their military overspending in the illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Libya they were not only full speed into bankruptcy but also falling short in tackling other vital domestic issues like proper education and employment.
The taxpayer bailout of corrupt banks initiated by predecessor Prime ministers and now overseen by Cameron, paid for in large part by austerity in public spending cuts that have consequently weighed down on the housing, proper education and employment of the new generation is but the latest realization of Karl Marx words “An accumulation of wealth at one pole of society indicates an accumulation of misery and overwork at the other”. That is the hallmark of capitalism in today’s Britain, the US and Europe.
What on earth were those marginalized British teens thinking?
Well, that is not so hard to figure out. If you can control what people see, hear and read you can pretty much control what they think. And the crimes those young Londoners have apathetically committed testify To the reality that those teens were brought up under the street laws, forsaken by their government, addicted to violent video games and booze and subjected to too much Harry potter and street gangs’ movies.

Emulating Tahrir Square sit-in.

Potests in Tel Aviv, the first of its kind, that attracted the world's attention to israel as a nation

Mr. Cameron mentioned that he will not allow a culture of fear to prevail in England but somehow ignored the fact that many governments dating back to Mr. tony Blair’s contributed to this culture of fear by allowing a whole new generation to grow up with no sense of national belonging and with extremely worrying anti-social attitude.

Ever since the Egyptian uprising erupted and the Tahrir square sit-in example has been emulated in so many countries, we have seen it in Bahrain, Yemen, Spain and lately in Israel.

In Yemen and Bahrain the protests were calling for pro-democracy measures, in Spain they were protesting unemployment and in Israel, besides protesting the high cost of living and housing the Israelis subconsciously are trying to linger this unprecedented moment not only to pressure Netanyahu’s government into making economical concessions but also to bask in the warm feeling that the world is watching them, and may be for the first time, not as an aggressive military Middle-Eastern enclave but as a nation, for a change.

But in England we failed to see through all the riots and the arsons except the fear and a society on the verge of anarchy and Reeves’ Corner, Croyden, didn’t certainly look like London’s Tahrir square.
Mr. Cameron can blame this whole anarchy on hoodies and facemasks, on blackberry and Twitter, on discriminatory police conduct and lack of proper parenting but the fact will remain that the British society is evolving into some new polarized society the lower classes of which have exhibited in the past few days a nationwide tendency towards forsaking an old British value of respecting pro-sociability and adopting instead the primitive comradeship that is only a good value for street mobs and rebels without a cause.
For more articles by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his website


YouTube - Veterans Today -London riots - Rebels without a cause

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UK: Walking in Egypt’s shoes

by Dave Brown

Posted by realistic bird on August 12, 2011

by Nour Rida, Moqawama

Not long ago, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron was praising revolutions which used social networking in Egypt and Tunisia.Today, the British PM is using social media as a scapegoat. Only a few months after Egypt’s revolution and the avalanches of Western criticism that showered the Egyptian regime for using violence against the protesters and for banning the internet and new media, Cameron is walking in Egypt’s shoes.

Only a few days after the unrest in the UK, Cameron said his government may block social media, as police have arrested over 1,700 rioters across the United Kingdom. Among those arrested and charged were a teaching assistant, a charity worker and an 11-year-old boy.

In a speech at the House of Common, David Cameron said on Thursday he was considering all options to control the riots, including deployment of army and restricting social media, like Twitter and BlackBerry.

“Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them”, said Cameron.

He added that 16,000 officers would remain in London streets through the weekend and that “whatever resources the police need, they will get. Whatever tactics the police feel they need to employ, they have legal backing to do it.”

At the time the British government considers banning new media, the police, meanwhile, are making use of London’s intricate surveillance system to identify suspected “rioters”. Officials have set up a Flickr account on which they are posting screen grabs from those videos and asking people to turn in anyone they might know.

Cameron dismissed the idea that the posting of such photos was a violation of peoples’ privacy.
The British PM promised to arrest everyone related to the recent violence in the country, saying: “We are making technology work for us, by capturing the images of the perpetrators on CCTV – so even if they haven’t yet been arrested, their faces are known and they will not escape the law.”

“No phony human rights concerns about publishing photographs will get in the way of bringing these criminals to justice,” he said.

Cameron, also on exploring curbs on the use of social media tools if these were being used to plot “violence, disorder and criminality” as he claims, has already authorized police to use baton rounds and water cannon where necessary.

Also, a curfew may ban people from the streets at night, and the Army could take over guard duties to free police to tackle those running rampage.

Shutting down social media, of course, was a favorite tactic of Middle Eastern despots throughout the Arab Spring – one which was routinely condemned by the Western world.

On the other hand, the number of people killed during massive unrest across England has climbed as a 68-year-old retired man died in hospital on Thursday night.

Richard Mannington Bowes, who went in a coma after being attacked by an angry crowd in Ealing during Monday’s violence, died late Thursday night, prompting detectives to launch a murder inquiry.
His death came only after the suspicious death of three Muslim men that were run down by a car when trying to protect their fellow community members during the persisting unrest in Birmingham, and the murder of a 26-year-old man that was shot in a car in Croydon.

Jim Killock, the executive director of online advocacy organization Open Rights Group, said Cameron risked attacking the “fundamental” right of free speech. “Events like the recent riots are frequently used to attack civil liberties. Policing should be targeted at actual offenders, with the proper protection of the courts,” Killock added.

“Citizens also have the right to secure communications. Business, politics and free speech relies on security and privacy. David Cameron must be careful not to attack these fundamental needs because of concerns about the actions of a small minority.”

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Voice Of Reason

Voice Of Reason

Friday, August 12, 2011 at 5:58AM Gilad Atzmon

London is his home,
Britain is his home
He has rights too

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