Yes, CNN is showing scenes of St. Louis with riot police confronting rioters, militarized vehicles driving around, looted stores, burning cars and violent protesters. All because the police shot an 18 year old thug when he pointed a gun at them when they raided a house to apprehend wanted criminals. St. Louis police use tear gas on demonstrators protesting fatal shooting http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/19/us/st-louis-police-shooting/index.html
let me guess, the "wanted criminals" were drug dealers. most likely drug dealers that were behind on their police bribes
yeah except, robbing little old ladies is kind of a limited bag. There aren't that many of them that are worth robbing, and after you have robbed them there is no repeat business. Now drugs on the otherhand.........
This is what happens when a social system loses its legitimacy, respect for everything goes out the window, including the true and the just.
I'm sure Brass will see some form of brilliance in this post, but there is nothing here... "a social system loses its legitimacy"...any college prof would write "vague", explain in detail...More bullshit that passes as insightful commentary.
St. Louis has an interesting social dynamic. A lot of people with german ancestry, who typically favor strict law and order. And a lot of lawless thugs, who see the police as an occupying army.
Replace social system with government and you're right. When government attempts too much influence over social mores, and that government is criminally corrupt, society eventually loses all respect for authority and the law. Those with the least to lose will lead the charge.
But it's not just government that has lost its legitimacy, and government is but a part of our whole social system. The church gets lip service only. The economy is viewed by many as rigged, the invisible hand is gone, the rising tide is defunct, trickle down is debunked. Work hard is being replaced by lucky birth. Every solution proposed by the powers that be, whether public or private, no matter how much they differ, still have one thing in common: privilege is protected. Surprisingly, the masses no longer merely sense this, they have learned to articulate it, and well beyond, "the golden rule is 'he who has the gold makes the rules'". Inequality breeds mistrust, and trust is the implicit backbone of a healthy society. The poor mistrust the rich because they expect to get screwed in a rigged system, and the rich mistrust the poor because they figure their pile of bananas is going to get raided. So everyone hardens their position, shouts more loudly, "I'm the one who's right here".
There's little here that I can disagree with. I would point out that "lucky birth" has always been with us, and always will be. So will inequality to a certain degree. Your points about a rigged economy and all the debunked theories are right on. The thin veil of yeah, all that is true, but you still have a chance has been pulled back. What the people see is no, you don't have a chance. Those that have made it to the top haven't just made the ladder harder to climb, they've pulled the ladder up behind them. There is no ladder. Criminally corrupt politicians and corporate thugs walk free, and the kid in the street is saying, what, you're up my ass for selling a little weed? Go fuck yourself. Can't say as I blame them. As I've written before, the only thing that stops me from being right there in the street with them, (and IMO most of us), is that we have too much to lose. That something keeps getting eroded away, so the numbers of those with nothing to lose continues to grow.