The London Rioters

It's been pretty busy here this last week, plus my internet service has been infuriatingly inconsistent (especially since we just 'upgraded' to an allegedly more reliable and higher speed service). That means I barely have time to follow my bliss in political/world news/any news reading, and I certainly haven't had time to blog much about it. I know that's probably okay with the majority of the Common Room Readers, but it bugs me.=)

I have read about the riots in London with horrified sympathy for the peaceful victims.

This perspective is interesting, and I am inclined to agree:

The rioters in England have all been steeped in the concepts of social justice since infancy, and take its tenets for granted. People who have things are Bad People, who must be punished by taking their things away. They have also been taught that the Government will do that on their behalf, so they needn’t bestir themselves — but they have also learned that the Government cannot be trusted to provide retributive justice. The Government has promised to act as an intermediary, taking things away from the Bad People and giving them to the Good, but it is no longer a trusted intermediary. It will neither punish housebreakers, muggers, rapists, and the like, nor tax the Bad Rich People enough that they no longer have things. Its members are also quite clearly opportunists who rake off a substantial percentage of the take from the Bad People without passing it on to the Good Ones.

When an intermediary is no longer trusted it will be bypassed whenever possible, and if you read their Tweets and proclamations that’s exactly what the rioters are doing.

Darleen Click points out that these riots are the natural outcome of a particular political ideology.