Having a riot of a time!

Oh how delightful.  Riots in Tottenham on Saturday night and more riots on Sunday.  Then, as if to put the icing on the cake, on Monday night there are riots in Croydon, Hackney, Clapham, Lewisham, Peckham, Bromley, Catford and who knows where else.  In Croydon there is a massive fire involving a furniture store and a pub and other fires have been lit.  Then it turns out there is unrest in Birmingham and Leeds as well with reports of a man being shot in Leeds.

There are serious questions as to what happened on Saturday when Mark Duggan was shot.  The police seem to be uncertain about their story.  It sound as if they are hedging their bets until they feel they cannot be proved wrong in whatever story they invent.  But there is something very suspicious emerging.

In Peckham a PriMark has been looted along with many other shops.  It is not limited to males, the girls are also doing the free 'shopping' too.

In Clapham Junction Currys was ransacked with people taking suitcases of stolen goods away from the store.

Why are people asking "Why?"  Do they really believe the illusion of the financial system, of the consumer culture, of the wealthy abusing the population and the charade of democracy?  It is like trying to understand the Middle East in terms of religion or 9/11.  It is the crumbling of an unsustainable oppressive system.

Sally Leivseley, a security expert, was interviewed on Al Jazeera and was saying that the police need better communications and systems in place to be quicker than the youths.

The Interior Minister, Theresa May, said there should be no doubt that everybody responsible for the trouble will be caught and will face justice.  She said there was no excuse for violence and thuggery.

Tony Sewell was interviewed on Al Jazeera.  He sounded confident as if he knew what he is talking about but he really doesn't understand what is behind these riots.  He is a director of Generating Genius, a charity helping youngsters in poor communities.  He thinks there should be more 'authority' to keep these youngsters under control.

Mike Hardy the director of the Institute Of Community Cohesion was interviewed and he was the first person who seems to make sense.  He understands that this behaviour is the consequence of seriously disaffected groups of people.  He sees this in a much larger time scale.  It is the erosion of our culture.  There are more and more people growing up who in no way feel they belong to the society they live in.  They are deprived, sidelined, without hope and what do they care?

Most discussions on the subject of these riots are still anchored in the supposed values of the previous 100 years.  Theresa May's comments about there being no excuse for violence and thuggery is simply appalling.  What was our government doing in Iraq?  What are they doing in Afghanistan?  What are they thinking of when they bail out the rich bankers with billions of pounds stolen from the poor in society.  They hock the youngster's future by 'lending' them the money to get educated.  It is just a way of keeping the social services from having to pay them as unemployed.  The joke is that by the time they should be paying the loans back the economy won't sustain it either.  They renege on their deals with pensions, they cut every benefit they can lay their hands on.  The Children Services are apparently being funded to the tune of £7,000 per week for every child they can kidnap.  The 'authorities' are the thugs!  What the hell did they think would happen if they kept lying through their teeth about 'values' and morals' that they assumed everyone else was bound by but somehow didn't apply to them?

Someone said this is a sad day for everyone.  NO.  Not for me.  I love it.  It wasn't so long ago I was a relatively well off middle class, well educated, employed, family man.  But our culture got hold of me and I have been lied to and cheated by every 'authority' I have encountered.  They seem to think their little bit of corruption doesn't matter as they push it all under the carpet.  But now there is a lot of debris under the carpet.  So much that it only takes an excuse like Mark Duggan to get shot and the carpet starts heaving.

Toxic Drums has been saying for some time now that this would happen.  Unfortunately it will only go on for a few more nights.  But the problem is still there and like a smouldering volcano it will erupt.  The prediction is in about 3 years time.  It would be possible to address the problems and to stop the revolution occurring but the authorities are still as blind as ever and they will think they are winning by being more draconian.  But all they will be doing is making the situation worse.

These riots will prove to be the excuse to 'toughen up'.  They will be used to bring in more laws violating human rights and dignity.  They will increase the police's powers and overall there will be less justice.  Since it is fundamentally the lack of justice that is behind these riots you can see the situation can only get worse.  Why am I pleased?  Because I have gone from okay to near destitute in seven years because of the self serving authoritarian monsters who are running our culture.  The majority of people are still believing in those projected values and the worse things get the more they will become judgemental, punitive and vengeful.

So all I can say is carry on being judgemental, carry on thinking these youths are out of hand, criminal, nasty, selfish and lawless.  Think of as many negative attributes as you can to lay on them to make yourselves feel good.  Because the more we condemn them the less we realise it is 'our' problem.  It is not 'them'.  It is the culture that allows the rich and powerful, the privileged and the control freaks to lives like a cancer off the back of the oppressed.  The more condemning and superior judgemental crap that emerges the sooner the real revolution will occur.

Our culture is collapsing and if a lot of people in positions of power and influence don't understand that, then there is nothing they will be able to do about it.  And it is not just the people at the top that matter.  It is all of us.  People must stop supporting the oppressors.  People must stop tolerating the inequality and the injustice of this culture.  The banks, the petroleum companies, the pharmaceuticals, the politicians, the police, the social services, all of them must be held to account.  They must not be allowed to continue getting away with the abuse.  If you support the authorities in their injustice because it makes you feel safer at the moment take a look at your history books.  This kind of abuse cannot continue as if it works in the long run.  There will always be a revolution in the end.

There are too many disaffected people in our culture.  They see the wealthy and the powerful as the enemy and they really don't care anymore.  I am very close to agreeing with them.

What I want to see is less of the punitive judgemental crap in our culture and for the 'austerity measures' (code for rip off the poor and keep the rich happy) to be seen for what they are and not to be accepted.  I want people to make their voices heard that the politicians and the rich and powerful do not own the ground the rest of us walk on.  We are all humans on this planet and we all have to cooperate.  The pollution of the planet must stop.  The poverty inflicted as a device of control must stop.  The lies and deception perpetrated by companies for their own benefit must stop.  We have to stop swallowing the bullshit.

So:  For the time being I am delighted that the country is sinking into hell.  If I really thought the revolution had started I would probably be ecstatic because it would mean the end of this perverse culture was close at hand.  But sadly the majority of the population will carry on as normal muttering condemnation of the naughty people whilst they wend their way to work for their particular oppressor.

Just a thought before I go.  We are like ants.  We do what we do.  These riots are NOT 'them'.  These riots are what 'we' are fermenting in our corrupt and inhumane culture.