What the hell is going on in the UK?

[Kosmo]

Long Live Multiculturalism!

The same as in France the groups doing this will be rewarded with serious material advantages from a timid government desperate to buy peace rather then be willing to change a toxic immigration policy. Most media in politically correct selfcensorhip doesn't even mention race issues despite being obviously central to the events. I bet most looters could not afford living in London without subsidized housing and other entitlements.

Given british laws I think a shop owner defending his shop with a baseball bat has more chances of going to jail then a looter who could use a socio-economic and cultural defense of his actions.

[Lex]

The media are now trying to portray the riots as 'multi-racial' but this is a complete lie, they're still plagued by some kind of political correct agenda even while the city is burning around them.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Lex

[Ursus]

I have nothing against the UK people, and in fact usually admire them. But it's obvious their government and their police have become a joke. A responsible government would have declared martial law and sent in well armed police units from the get go. A bunch of punks armed with twitter are ruling the streets in the UK .... and that's a sad epilogue to a country that held out alone against the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht.

 

My sympathies are with the people. I hope all UNRV members there are safe and still invested with their property.

[guy]

I will try to relate the current upheaval in England to the lessons from the outcomes of opposite models for immigration and assimilation in two very different ancient societies. The outcome of the Roman Empire is contrasted with the outcome of the Greek city states and the later Hellenistic empires.

 

First of all, most of the looters and rioters are not white English boys (although I am sure many of them were since hooligans of all types will take advantage of any opportunity).

 

Most the rioters are poor immigrants or children of immigrants who have not assimilated into the larger society. Many of these people feel that they do not even have a vested interest in their local communities.

 

I

Edited August 11, 2011 by guy

[Kosmo]

I will try to relate the current upheaval in England to the lessons from the outcomes of opposite models for immigration and assimilation in two very different ancient societies. The outcome of the Roman Empire is contrasted with the outcome of the Greek city states and the later Hellenistic empires.

 

It is far harder to assimilate in European societies because they are built as nation states centered on historical myths about a common ancestry, myths that immigrant can't share. The American definition of nation is more political and ideological because the US is a nation of immigrants from different regions. Somebody like Obama would not be identified as a Romanian here despite holding citizenship and would have no hope of being elected unlike someone from the German minority that almost became prime-minister a few years ago.

Gypsies live here for hundreds of years, they are christians, usually bilingual and often racially indistinguishable from the majority, but still far from assimilation mainly because assimilation would mean giving up their own linguistic and cultural identity. The same is true about the migrants that live in ethnic enclaves in Western Europe with little contact with the majority culture.

[GhostOfClayton]

A responsible government would have declared martial law and sent in well armed police units from the get go.

 

I sort of agree that the UK police should take a firmer approach, but am quite worried that it can be a fine line between armed reaction to rioting looters and armed reaction to rioting freedom fighters (like they're doing in Syria). The UK police have worked really hard to lose their reputation for heavy-handed policing over the last 20-30 years, and the balance is difficult tio strike, in that context. We need to be SO careful we don't condemn the likes of Assad and Gaddafi and for doing stuff that we start doing.

[Guest ParatrooperLirelou]

I'm pretty sure its no worse than in the U.S.(where I live in) and other Western countries.

[Centurion-Macro]

It is the system that caused these riots, and it is the system that created the looting thugs. This riot was started by the poor, and it has been hijacked by the thugs: both of whom are products of the capitalist system.

 

I am just scared because I have relatives in the city...