[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITJcparImeQ]
There is something very heartening about the British reaction to what can only be described, but is rarely described, as an insurrection.
What of it? This insurrection? Who understands it?
Look at what The British have experienced recently: A corrupt government in league with corrupt media billionaires who in turn corrupt the police and the establishment.
Nothing can be trusted.
Phone hacking and police bribes may be more the cause of this rebellion than the death of a black cabbie.
The mess at the top sends a distinct message to those at the bottom that society is rotten.
I heard a young white British girl telling a reporter in Birmingham that she ‘hated the police’ because they did not ‘respect’ her.
“Why should I respect them, they don’t respect me?” She sneered.
Why indeed? She may have nothing that you or I think worth respecting. But she lives in a country where her government and the police are known thieves and liars. Where bankers have looted the system, bankrupted the country and she is being asked to pay. To tighten her belt.
She feels disrespected. She has a point.
Of course, it takes an old white man to say what that young, female heathen could never articulate.
Like many young, white people she is not eager to get on her knees and scrub floors, look after the smelly elderly, drive a bus. She wants the Simon Cowell dream of instant riches. A hidden talent that may earn her legitimacy.
She wants to win the lottery so she can be more like the Beckhams. She wants to be Catherine Middleton and marry into a powerful family that is paid by the state to do nothing.
She has forgotten just how lucky she is because she wants stuff more than an attitude of gratitude.
The streets are teaming by night with angry black and asian men threatening the police with sticks. By day the same streets are being swept by jolly middle-aged white women wanting to restore order.
Today my friends on Facebook are finding humor where there is no obvious answer.
At the Michelin awarded restaurant The Ledbury in Notting Hill Gate the rich cowered in the wine cellar as the looters came, stealing their money and their jewelery. The looting continued on Sloane Square. They rampaged over the thick carpet in Prada and Burberry, places that they could never hope to afford, leaving mannequins on the pavement like broken people.
What of this rebellion? How could it be? Why in London? Why in Britain?
This is not a racially motivated rebellion. This is about greed. Taking what we want when we want it. Instant gratification. It has no focus other than greed. These people have no political agenda. The are not trying to wrest control of government.
This is a rebellion. A refusal of obedience and order. It may evolve into a mass non-violent resistance, it may attempt to destroy an established authority such as a government…but it wont.
“I can’t afford it, I will take it.” It is the scourge of capitalism. The ‘haves’ must prepare to either give a little or lose the lot. The ‘have nots’ are beginning to find out how powerful they are…armed with clubs and their Blackberry.
Don’t be complacent America. This will happen here too. Sooner or later the desperately poor will take back their power and you will see what I have been suggesting since the beginning of the banking crisis: the people will speak. They will not be polite.
The difference here will be that any rebellion will be bloodier than our tame British street brawls. It will be more like Syria. Many dead.
Insurrection is as much a part of civilised society as the peace that reigns between. The ruling class have had it easy. They have looted from the poor and now the disenfranchised will have their say.
98% of the wealth owned by 5% of the people. Seeing images of the British on their streets stealing what they cannot afford may inspire Americans to do the same.
In Britain the police were woefully unprepared, armed or organized to protect what we consider important. The British police scarcely lifted a finger as the people came and took what they wanted.
The enemy for The British and The Americans are not in caves in Afghanistan they are in the trailer homes, homeless shelters and squalid broken cities like Cleveland and Detroit.
They are the casualties of a class war waged upon them by the rich. They will tell us eventually, the poor, this simple fact: We can’t earn it…we’ll take it. When they come they will take what they want and they will not take hostages. Not here. They will come into our shops and our restaurants, our homes and our cars.
They will come because they are desperate and we do not respect them.
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- I depict a riot (guardian.co.uk)
