Wednesday, August 10, 2011

London's burning

Here's the headline:

British Riots: Elites "Shocked" The Poor Are Rising Up Against Brutal Austerity Measures

And I want you to see this small passage:

The so-called leaders who have taken three solid days to return from their foreign holidays to a country in flames did not anticipate this. The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that after thirty years of soaring inequality, in the middle of a recession, they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong.


This is so well put. And so true. The privileged ones throughout the world need to pay attention to the point made in this paragraph I have quoted. We ignore this reality to our peril.
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2 comments:

  1. Problem is, nobody sympathizes with rioters and looters. It may make them feel powerful for a moment, be a catharsis as the article says, but it will get them nowhere at all. Some media attention and then they're back where they started, only now they are living in a neighborhood they've destroyed.

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  2. You are, of course, quite right, Bad Alice. This is simply saying that there are reasons things happen and it is edifying to no one to suppose that this is happening for no reason.

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