Melanie Phillips
The Daily Mail [UK]
11th August 2011
So now the chickens have well and truly come home terrifyingly to roost. The violent anarchy that has taken hold of British cities is the all-too-predictable outcome of a three-decade liberal experiment which tore up virtually every basic social value.
The married two-parent family, educational meritocracy, punishment of criminals, national identity, enforcement of the drugs laws and many more fundamental conventions were all smashed by a liberal intelligentsia hell-bent on a revolutionary transformation of society.
Those of us who warned over the years that they were playing with fire were sneered at and smeared as Right-wing nutters who wanted to turn the clock back to some mythical golden age.
Now we can see what they have brought about in the unprecedented and horrific scenes of mob violence, with homes and businesses going up in flames, and epidemic looting.
Clearly, there is some as yet unidentified direction and co-ordination behind the anarchy. But what is so notable and distressing is that, after the first day when adults were clearly involved, this mayhem has been carried out in the main by teenagers and children, some as young as eight.
The idea that they should not steal other people’s property, or beat up and rob passers-by, appears to be as weird and outlandish to them as the suggestion that they should fly to the moon.
These youths feel absolutely entitled to go ‘on the rob’ and steal whatever they want. Indeed, they are incredulous that anyone should suggest they might pass up such an opportunity…
Read the rest, and look at the amazing photos, at The Daily Mail.
Related links at The Daily Mail:
- STEPHEN GLOVER: Have the courage to be bold, Mr Cameron. Most of our country is on your side
- ‘If these thugs want a war, let’s send in the Army.’ In letters and emails, how ordinary people vented their fury this week
- Latest e-petition calls for looters to be evicted from council houses… and 78,000 sign up in 24 hours
- British youths are ‘the most unpleasant and violent in the world’: Damning verdict of writer as globe reacts to riots
In her blog Ms. Phillips published, Goodbye to the Enlightenment:
An illuminating report on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme (0810) this morning said it all about the British riots. Some teenage thugs who were hooding up to go looting were asked why they were doing it. Maybe they couldn’t afford the trainers* and other goods they were setting out to steal? Yeah, we can afford them, came the reply; but since the goods were there to be robbed, it was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. What about their parents? Did they know where they were? Yeah, came the reply, but the most they do is shout at me. And as for the police, well the worse that can happen is that I’ll get as ASBO (antisocial behaviour order).
Some of the rioters and looters are as young as eight or nine. I then listened to a spokesman for Manchester city council appealing to parents to ensure that their children are not on the streets tonight. Why can’t people see what is staring us all in the face? We are not up against merely feral children. We are up against feral parents. Of course the parents know their children are out on the streets. Of course they see them staggering back with what they have looted. But either they are too drunk or drugged or otherwise out of it to care, or they are helping themselves to the proceeds too…
Read the whole thing.
*CAJ note: In Britain trainers are running shoes or sneakers
The Virginian has a good list of related headlines from Drudge. Check them out.
At BackyardConservative former liberal Anne Leary has written a warning for America in her worthwhile post, Lord of the Flies in London. If you haven’t read that horrifying classic novel by William Golding, then get to the library, to your local bookstore, or to Amazon and pick up a copy! This book used to be a staple of English classes prior to the creation of the Department of Education and the tyranny of political correctness. Now? Probably not…
From Amazon, upon the release of the 50th Anniversary Edition:
William Golding’s classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, “the boy with fair hair,” and Piggy, Ralph’s chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island’s wild pig population. Soon Ralph’s rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: “He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet.” Golding’s gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition.
This graphic H/T Verum Serum:
click on the image to enlarge
Update: Victims of the UK Riots at Square Mile Wife.
…Monika Konczyk, 32, came to Britain in March to join her older sister, Beata, 37, and intending to improve her English, but her narrow escape from a fire in Croydon has left her badly shaken. “She is incredibly traumatised as she feels she narrowly escaped death,” said her sister. “‘We are appalled. …
…a great write-up in the WSJ – do read the whole thing:
This week’s chaos might signal an even more important moment for Britain than many people realize: Either the radical left’s lies about the country—namely its economic and welfare system—will finally be exposed, or they will be reinforced by politicians eager to rewrite history. The leaders that helped bring us to this pass seem intent not merely to repeat their mistakes, but to deepen them… [emphasis CAJ]
The SMW post is remarkable. Please read it.
Police catch Monika Konczyk who was forced to leap from her Croydon flat after rioters set the building on fire.
This photo of Polish immigrant Monika Konczyk and the horrifying account is at GatewayPundit.
Related: Wisconsin Police take lessons from Eric Holder’s DOJ. Hate crime? What hate crime? At Protein Wisdom.
At PowerLine, Time to Move? with an editorial cartoon by Michael Ramirez
Update 2: Ann Coulter writes at Human Events, The Sun Never Sets On The British Welfare System
Those of you following the barbaric rioting in Britain will not have failed to notice that a sizable proportion of the thugs are white, something not often seen in this country.
Not only that, but in a triumph of feminism, a lot of them are girls. Even the “disabled” (according to the British benefits system) seem to have miraculously overcome their infirmities to dash out and steal a few TVs.
Congratulations, Britain! You’ve barbarized your citizenry, without regard to race, gender or physical handicap!
With a welfare system far more advanced than the United States, the British have achieved the remarkable result of turning entire communities of ancestral British people into tattooed, drunken brutes…
Some humor, to illustrate Ann Coulter’s remarks about feminism’s achievements in the UK: Little Britain‘s Vicky Pollard goes to court.
Update 3: Bolton: America Headed Toward Socialist Europe. (video) Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton discusses why America must rein in its spending problem.
Update 4: Ezra Levant & Robert Spencer discuss the London Riots and jihadist efforts to use them to their advantage. (video) Also, Muslims Not Letting a Good Crisis Go to Waste in the UK. Both at Blazing Cat Fur
