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Civilization's End

The flash mobs in America or the Blackberry mobs in London have one thing in common. It isn't race, though they tend to predominantly be minorities. It's identity.

The counterculture has not changed dramatically since the 70's, but it has tossed aside any appearance of idealism. The new counterculture draws in two groups, disaffected upper middle class white youth and lower class black youth. Their goals are purely materialistic, looted iPods and government subsidies for housing, education and anything else they can think of.

These are the children of the welfare state with little in common except a rejection of the commercial way of life. Neither the entitled white university brat or the posturing ghetto teenager has any interest in working. The businesses they smash are an alien thing to them. Small businessmen do not go about smashing stores. The people who do think of commodities as something they trick or intimidate others into giving to them. And that covers everyone from municipal unions to thugs driving around BMW's.

Rand's looters take on a more literal meaning in Tottenham. Smashing store windows and grabbing what's inside is only the protest for more government handouts taken directly to the businesses who fund it without the bother of a government middle man.

This lawless materialism is the essence of the welfare state. "Loot as much as you can, or someone else will." If you don't grab government benefits or sneakers in store windows, someone else will. The rich are grabbing, the pols are grabbing-- time to queue up and loot your share. Communism made this way of thinking so commonplace that all of Russia became one black market. And we are not far behind.

What kind of people behave this way? Those who have come to think of wealth as an infinite pile from which everyone grabs as much as they can. This is where the ethos of the socialist left and hip-hop comes together. Obama gleefully spending millions on himself and trillions on national giveaways for his donors and supporters is the most obnoxious fusion of this phenomenon.


Technological savvy melded with barbaric behavior, the 21st century mobile devotee turned raider is a wake up call in more ways than one. These are not mere race riots, they are the self-organization of the end of our civilization.

The classic raid has come to the cities of West, its hallmarks are not frustration but careful planning, followed by a violent rush. The raids may have a profit motive, but often they are there only to terrify.  Mostly there is no larger political agenda, only the emergence of an old way of life that most people think died with the Vikings.

The law banished the raider back into the dim pages of history,  but law depended on a civilization which is now collapsing. Police officers alone won't be enough to stem the ride. Law enforcement depends on the fear of the average person to step out of line and break the law. The lone criminal pits himself against the well-oiled machine of the police and the federal authorities. But when gangs defy the authorities, then it's the beginning of a civil war.

An understated civil war is already raging in Europe, between Muslim and African immigrants and the society they have penetrated. The conflict has made a mockery of the social controls of Europe. Put surveillance cameras on every street, and we'll don masks and turn out in numbers. Run your DNA banks and see how much luck you have when entire streets are burning. Outlaw knives and we'll bring our Molotov cocktails.

The United States managed to offer enough economic growth in the last two decades that riots were mostly limited to angry white college students protesting for some radical cause. But the economic engine is off and the flash mob is here. Black unemployment is at an all time high and teenagers with thousands of dollars, but without the steadying effect of full time employment are getting their kicks.

The situation is worse in the UK, where middle class brats and African youth are equally furious at Cameron's cuts, and eager for the looting to resume. The shooting of a criminal is a common signal to riot, but not out of outrage, but opportunity. Political outrage always transmutes into loot. The looters are not bothering to wait until some commission suggests directing more money to social programs. Their looting is more direct and more immediate. For a gratification as instant as the tech that they use to organize their banditry.

Divestment is the common denominator. Neither the middle-class white or lower-class black rioter is invested in his society. The white rioter is a globalist, the black rioter is an outsider. Neither are invested in the city and country they are busy trashing.

The traditional raider saw himself as part of an outside group. The modern raider has global identities that are at odds with the country he lives in. He may see himself as a citizen of the world, a member of the Muslim Ummah, as black or a Marxist or any number of other wider identities. And these identities are more primal than being an Englishman or an American. When he joins a raiding party, it is as a member of one of those groups looting a society whose welfare is of no interest to him. 

Civilization depends on a consensus. The fundamental base of that consensus is that the civilization is a worthwhile thing which must endure. We follow the law not only because the law is right, but even when it is wrong, because law is the safeguard of civilization. But why should people who do not value the civilization follow the law?

The left's motives for rebelling are different than those of minority looters. But the end result is similar enough. A disregard for the civilization becomes a disregard for its laws. And that leaves self-interest as the only hedge against anarchy. But what interest do people who do not work for a living have in preserving the businesses of others? None at all. As far as they are concerned, smash a store, it will collect the insurance, and reopen, or another will open up in its place. And even if it doesn't, then so what? It's not "our businesses" anyway.

Small business is the backbone of human freedom. The small businessman is able to negotiate commercial arrangements with individuals and groups outside the dominance of larger authority. But small business is on the decline. The corner store is likely to be run by outsiders, in Detroit as in London. And around it are chain stores, franchised or not, that are primary targets of looters. Loot them enough and all that's left is a hopelessly unrecoverable ghetto.

The bigger the institutions get, the more they are cut off from the street, and the more fragmented the society becomes. Nations become giants unable to see or fend off the gnomes hammering at their feet. And their corrective solutions inevitably lean toward more social gigantism. Violence rewarded often enough becomes a habitual tool of politics until the looter matters more than the ballot box. When the authorities show that they will reward violence with social benefits, the welfare state will grow fangs.

That process was aborted in the United States, but it is still commonplace in Europe, which has not learned the American lesson that the worst way to respond to riots is with bribery. America put an end to the riot by cutting welfare benefits and bulking up police forces. The modern NYPD and LAPD may be ugly creatures, at times downright vicious, but they are far more useful than their metropolitan police counterparts. And the black entrepreneur is a far more common figure today than the rioter.

Of course the underlying problem cannot be solved with better police forces or economic growth, only temporarily suppressed. The underlying tensions are cultural, ideological, racial and religious. The university student taught that his civilization is an illegitimate construct employed for the benefit of a few that deserves to be torn down will retain the same mindset whether he is looting an electronics shop or teaching at a school. And that mindset is contagious.

The commercial tribalism of the rapper who conflates casual violence and criminality with honor follows a pattern of glorifying crime that predates and postdates race, its ubiquity dating back centuries, from the highwayman to the 1920's bank robber, and is almost as socially disruptive and even more contagious.

The narrative is the same. Its idealism and honor covers up the blatant materialism and greed that its lawbreaking enables. And the message is also the same. Civilization's end.

The return of the raider as an instant message enabled gang is a phenomenon at odds with progress. It is a warning that darker times are returning, that while everyone may pack phones that have more processing power in one inch than a room of computers did 30 years ago, the march of progress is moving backward. Civilization isn't over yet, but it is badly endangered. It has become an undefined thing held in largely in contempt. It is a structure that everyone takes for granted, but few respect.

It has been a long time since Vikings raided English shores, but the new Vikings don't need to take boats to get there. The barbarians in our civilization are already among us. They are already here.

Comments

  1. Anonymous8/8/11

    And the rallying cry is," I'm gonna get what's mine"

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  2. Anonymous9/8/11

    Rather amusingly, the same commentators in London who hailed Twitter as "a wonderful revolutionary tool", and criticised the Egyptians for suspending it, are now calling for it to be suspended in London.

    Superb. It cuts both ways, ladies and gents...

    I saw the dimwit labour MP for Hackney (site of rioting) Dianne Abbot on TV this morning saying "We must condemn this violence BUT...". There's always a qualifier with socialists to justify the violence, isn't there? That's becasue the left wing LOVES violence. It ADORES it. It's a VITAL part of The Left's ideology that's been nothing but a failure everywhere in the world for the last 100 years.

    As far as The Left in Britain are concerned, this violent rioting and looting is WONDERFUL.

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  3. Anonymous9/8/11

    This is race no doubt about it. It's a show of black solidarity, they were looting and beating whites and they even made whites strip and stole their clothes.

    This shows that multiculturalism is a disaster. It lies in tatters, people can now see the full horror of a rainbow society. The thugs and looters bear responsibility, but those who deliberately betrayed their people and created this nightmare are the biggest criminals of all.

    The events in my country are Marxist porn, it is exactly what they want.

    Proud Brit.

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  4. Makers Vs. Takers, with the races filing in according to their inherent traits.

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  5. I would argue that this behaviour is as much the fault of neo-conservatism, of the myth of the efficacy of the free market and the supremacy of the individual. Today's capitalism tells us that we can and should have whatever we want and nothing should stand in our way from getting it. Just as the rich flaunt tax laws and business ethics to amass more fortune, the poor flaunt property laws and social values to take the consumer items they believe bring them happiness.

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  6. Anonymous9/8/11

    Global Guerrillas anticipated the flash mobs - calling it "swarming".

    What stands against a violent distributed system like this is force of arms and solidarity of the "makers". What else was the law "supposed" to be?

    You'll note the places where the flash mobs descend - that the victims have been disarmed in advance.

    This "movement" will likely dash itself on the rocks at the edge of suburbia (in the US), where those laws end.

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  7. Anonymous9/8/11

    It will come to an end soon enough in the USA. Only in the big liberal cities will it still be a problem - they have been disarmed.
    Sooner or later an intended victim will draw his Glock and shoot several of the leaders in the face.
    "Shoot them to the ground" is my personal motto.
    Notice it hasn't happened in the Southern US ? We are armed to the teeth.
    John Mosby

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  8. Anonymous9/8/11

    Ready to ride again Col. Mosby?

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  9. Anonymous9/8/11

    I think article raises many fundamental questions on which entire West is built, strongly believes in also continues to be double standard whether it is the question of welfare state, globalisation, immigration policy, multiculturalism, ethnicity, racism and many more.

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  10. Anonymous9/8/11

    Daniel, excellent article again. In italy a couple of weeks ago an otherwise legitimate protest against a high speed train track turned into a guerrilla, with rather violent young italians dressed up (just like the london rioters and the palestinian terrorists) with converse sneakers, iphones in the pockets of their expensive jeans, and keffyeh - of course.

    Protesting against the very same political elite that keeps them in eternal pubertal state.

    More attacks on the small business, from the top - the political elite - and the bottom - the squads of welfare parasites, that, as you say correctly, do nothing to earn their living.

    So let's give them all a free PhD, in any of our Marxist universities, and the problems will be solved.

    Fed.

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  11. What about a one way ticket to study at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow?

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  12. Anonymous9/8/11

    My perception is that this is all "gangsta" based. These people have bought into the gangasta lifestyle. They have also figured out that with coordination they can hit & run faster than the police. This lil lesson will not be lost on our "bangers" here in the States. I figure to see at least three copy cat events in the US this weekend. I do agree that the "movement" in the US will die on the suburban doorstep and I hope that death is literal.

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  13. Patriot9/8/11

    Henry Kissinger is reputed to have said in the days of Nixon, "Today, the American people will not accept UN troops on our soil, but the day will come when they will welcome it." This has been planned for a long time. Repubs, Dems, it doesn't matter. Obama is a true believer in the one world gov't and the UN. We need our troops home NOW. Home from Afghanistan, home from Iraq, Libya, Germany, and everywhere else. We need them to patrol our streets and our borders and get rid of the illegals and the thugs.

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  14. Aurelius10/8/11

    Superb article Daniel. The see-saw mainstream media is now doing its predictable "but what caused this" post-mortem, all picking up isolated fag ends, none of which are the whole picture, which stretches back 20+ years before most of these feral scum were born.

    It is both their fault and not. It IS, because regardless of troubled upbringing, social and economic deprivation, gang/peer pressure et al, EVERYONE (but a total psycho)has an innate moral compass and can make a choice. Be weak, lazy, greedy and led. Or strong and take the road less travelled, but probably be made an outcast. Most are weak, but it is a choice nontheless.

    What isn't their fault is the dichotomy of both left and right-wing moronic politics, since pretty much post WWII into the '50s age of consumerism, which turned-post the '80s digital age-into the age of globalism and unparalled greed.

    The naive, idiot left wing socialists have bred an entire generation of feckless benefit-parasite entitled feral scum who believe the world owes them a living. The underclass delude themselves they are REALLY "poor" (go visit an 8 yr old girl in India trawling through trash heaps for plastic to sell for 10 cents a day - she's not setting fire to her neighbours shop), but have enough to watch MTV Cribs and covet the bling they then steal.

    The socialists have also created through nonsense "Human Rights Laws" drafted up by millionare lawyers an untouchable youth class who know no discipline at home, in school, on the streets or in work (even for the few that can be bothered to work), and they all know their rights. It's "Lord of the Flies", with the children ruling the adults.

    The welfare system (esp in Europe) has become a lifestyle choice never to work, not a safety net for the most desperate. And one where teenagers have sex without thought and breed without consequence as this spawn is just supported ad infinitum by the state - until, as now, the inevitable problem with this moronic ideology "sooner of later socialism runs out of other peoples money" then the welfare dog bites back. The fathers move on and breed with someone else, leaving a broken home and the lack of respect and discipline immediately kicks in there and then.

    And at the other end of the scale the disgusting rapacious greed machine of NOT free-market capitalism, (if it was free-market all the corrupt banks would have been allowed to go bust and those outright felons the CXO's would be bankrupt, on food stamps if not in jail), but unfettered elite globalism, has produced an equally heinous generation of obscenely greedy and corrupt "professional" and ruling elite who know no limit to their excess, lies and deception.

    The politicians, the police, the banks, big business, the main stream media - caked in the filth of their own exponential greed excrement, gorging on never-enough dividends, profit, growth, ego, fame, power, and utterly and absolutely corrupt and immoral to the core.

    Creating the opium for the masses of low-brow media drug hypnotising the drone classes into cyclical consumption, desire and envy.

    And what have you got? - zero role models in the home of these looting scum, and even worse non-role models in the thieving immoral liars that run the countries and the the global businesses and ponzi wealth machinery.

    All wrapped up in monoculture MSM newz, brainwashing reality TV, violent video games and planet brand & bling.

    Does anyone really wonder why it's come to this?

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  15. Aurelius10/8/11

    The only thing that astounds me is that the "people like us" who are neither of those two extremes, but stuck between them trying to earn a living and being robbed by both STILL swing vote between democrat/republican, labour/conservative. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME! they just wear different coloured ties. They are all owned by the system. We need a TOTALLY different approach to government if we are not to go the exact same way of every other "great" civilisation and "democracy". Nero is fiddling on the walls of Rome, why cannot anyone but the few hear this?

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  16. Anonymous10/8/11

    Give them a whiff of grape shot and make no apologies.

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  17. Anonymous10/8/11

    I think it's really just a mix of nihilism, materialism and opportunism that's created the devious mindset of these miscreant youth.

    We can all laugh at the Catherine Tate sketch where she proclaims "Am I bothered?" but that's a serious statement of young society today in that they have no stake in society. Thus they don't feel allegiance to it it.

    They don't care about what they do and who they do it to.

    They act with impunity when it comes to the police or their elders.

    The only approval they care for is their circle of peers and the social pressures to act in these gang units. As part of the gang unit they become part of something bigger and it gives them this sense of invulnerability.

    This is the most disturbing aspect of all and it rightfully demonstrates that a society cannot operate without fear of repercussions.

    The BBC on Newsnight yesterday exposed how some of the looters were employed and educated such as university graduates and youth workers.

    This wasn't about the repressed class, it was just an opportunity to loot whilst the police were stretched and dealing with chaos and disarray.

    The new phone, the clothes, the electronics, the money. These are the things they are made to covet through flashy advertisements.

    It's not about how you get it, it's about what you have. It is the means to an end.

    This nihilistic, materialist, opportunistic culture needs to change, and I think that can only be done through examples.

    The cult of WAGs, popstars and footballers needs to end.

    Right now this is a society without shame, and these people need to feel ashamed of the examples they set.

    But it's not all doom and gloom. People are out with brooms trying to clear up the mess and it shows that the crux to fixing our broken society is getting people to help each other, not for pay, or for any personal gain. But for the good of the community which we all live in.

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  18. Wonderful analysis... that applies to exactly 10% of the rioters.

    The other 90% behaved precisely like those of the same race that pulled whites out of cars in Wisconsin for the purpose of beating them to a pulp. No 'anti-commercial' looting took place.

    Why (no slur intended) not just call a spade a spade?

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  19. Anonymous10/8/11

    Time to put on your fighting trousers

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  20. Anonymous11/8/11

    Our elites got it into their heads that our civilisation was universal and not specific to a people with a predominantly Judea-Christian root.

    On that assumption they imported tens of millions of people who never had any such idea, if not downright hostile to it. Now we are paying the price.

    The civil war has begun, and just like in the Balkans, is set to last for the foreseeable future.
    Our elites got it into their heads that our civilisation was universal and not specific to a people with a predominantly Judea-Christian root.

    On that assumption they imported tens of millions of people who never had any such idea, if not downright hostile to it. Now we are paying the price.

    The civil war has begun, and just as in the Balkans, is set to last for the foreseeable future.

    ReplyDelete

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