Friday, August 12, 2011

"The Dispossessed"

....Or not. Certainly not the LeGuin novel. The Narrative plays it like her The Day Before The Revolution, with Britain's rioters and looters as the losers in a rigid class system, stuck and despairing schmucks with zero upward mobility.

The arrests are telling a different story, with everyone from the lowest of the low to youngsters with bright prospects among the nouveau ruina et iaculis set ("smash and grab." I hear all the kewl kids are doin' it).

Yeah. They're not doin' it 'cos they haven't got, they're doin' it because it is there. This, of course, occasions another handy excuse: "Many of these criminals are no different from [liberal politician] Nick Clegg, who at the age of 16 narrowly escaped a conviction in Germany for setting fire to a professor's cactus collection for a 'drunken lark.'" -- That sophistry comes from the young-looking Daniel Knowles, who says we hadn't ought to call the sweet young Visigoths "feral scum," asking piously, "What do we do to “feral” animals? Oh yes, we exterminate them." Darn straight, sir, and about damn time. Civil society had 18, 19, 20 or more years to civilise these young Britons and it has failed. Perhaps you will take more care when you bring up the next crop and will be more minded of where the blame belongs when a child misbehaves, when a person reaches adulthood with so little regard for the discipline that makes us more than mere animals that they will burn and loot on impulse, that they'll throw rocks at shop windows and their fellowmen with no more concern than if they were skipping stones across a lake. British parents -- inheritors of the proud traditions of a nation that once bragged of having civilized the world -- failed a significant percentage of their children.

And sadly, too few of their savage offspring will get what feral dogs get -- and they will deserve it more. I doubt most of them can be salvaged. If you think they have made a mess of things now, just wait until more of them start voting!

2 comments:

jetaz said...

I think one of the most telling quotes from this whole debacle is "Shereece Ashley, 20, a single mother, told police:'Everyone else was doing it and it looked so easy.'"

They seem to have forgotten, or more like were never taught, that actions have consequences. They seem to believe that if they want it, it ought to belong to them, or that if they take it, it won't be a big deal because, "everyone else is doing it."\

Bubblehead Les. said...

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the 4th generation of children who are being raised on the Dole as a result of LBJ's "Great Society" are eagerly looking forward to NOT attending school this year, preferring instead to be Expelled, selling Crack and Weed, and shooting each other in drive-bys, all while eagerly awaiting a text to form a "Flash Mob" so as to go on a "Beat Em' Down Rampage".