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Everyone Booze Up and Riot
Canada Free Press
Daniel Greenfield
5/3/2012
Excerpt:
"Riots are the exclusive domain of those who view themselves as outside the law. Whether they are outside the law because they are above or below it is a matter of perspective. The rioters may see themselves as the oppressed who are below the law while their victims tend to think of them as above the law, with the power to rob and kill, without paying any significant price for it. All that is true whether we are talking about Russian peasants killing Jews, Indonesians killing ethnic Chinese or African-Americans killing whites.
The riot is usually directed at the authorities or some vulnerable group, sometimes both, but invariably one of them takes precedence. The authorities prefer that the rioters direct their rage at a conveniently vulnerable group and afterward the vulnerable group takes the blame for the violence directed at them. The rioters treat those few of their number who were killed in the looting spree as martyrs, while the rioted-upon pick up the broken glass and try to reopen their stores again.
Minorities rarely riot against majorities for the practical reason that rioters are cowards and they want to have the numbers on their side. A riot is less often a symptom of injustice and more often a sign that they have the numbers and that all they need is a pretext to go out for a fine day of looting and maiming. A riot isn’t a response to injustice, it’s a power play by people who believe that they are above the law and that their victims are outnumbered.
It’s a rather odd development that white people in America took on the role of the Chinese in Indonesia or the Jews in Russia, long before they became a demographic minority, but not entirely so. Race riots have mostly happened in cities where white people had become or were on the way to becoming a minority. And all three groups share the vital characteristic of being hard-working types whose success is overestimated by the looters looking for a taste of that success without having to go out and work for it.
The hated groups are not satisfied with their lot in life, instead they go out and strive for more possessed of the peculiar belief that they can rise above their station in life through hard work and ingenuity. Their neighbors rarely appreciate this attitude. In their world someone who has more than they do probably stole it from them. And when they booze up and riot, they’re only getting back what’s rightfully theirs.
In the mythology of the looters, they are the persecuted ones, and when the government sympathizes with the looters, that is the message it sends out. The mythology of a white grip on power driven by bone-deep racism and privilege has its echoes in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a conspiracy theory that justifies every act of violence against them.
But if riots were really triggered by a black and white racial disparity, then Asians wouldn’t be the victims of African-American riot rage from New York to Los Angeles. If anyone can be exempted from charges of shipping slaves or conspiring to employ their privilege to keep people of color down, it would be Chinese and Korean immigrants. But it isn’t really race that’s the issue; it’s being a successful minority.
Chinese, Jewish and white storeowners in America are targeted by rioters for the same reason that Chinese storeowners in Indonesia are. Because they are members of an outside group who are working hard and getting ahead and that is the worst imaginable crime to people who believe that success through honest work is impossible. That anyone who succeeds has taken advantage of a rigged system and is exploiting them to get ahead."
.................................................. .
View the complete article at:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/46443
Canada Free Press
Daniel Greenfield
5/3/2012
Excerpt:
"Riots are the exclusive domain of those who view themselves as outside the law. Whether they are outside the law because they are above or below it is a matter of perspective. The rioters may see themselves as the oppressed who are below the law while their victims tend to think of them as above the law, with the power to rob and kill, without paying any significant price for it. All that is true whether we are talking about Russian peasants killing Jews, Indonesians killing ethnic Chinese or African-Americans killing whites.
The riot is usually directed at the authorities or some vulnerable group, sometimes both, but invariably one of them takes precedence. The authorities prefer that the rioters direct their rage at a conveniently vulnerable group and afterward the vulnerable group takes the blame for the violence directed at them. The rioters treat those few of their number who were killed in the looting spree as martyrs, while the rioted-upon pick up the broken glass and try to reopen their stores again.
Minorities rarely riot against majorities for the practical reason that rioters are cowards and they want to have the numbers on their side. A riot is less often a symptom of injustice and more often a sign that they have the numbers and that all they need is a pretext to go out for a fine day of looting and maiming. A riot isn’t a response to injustice, it’s a power play by people who believe that they are above the law and that their victims are outnumbered.
It’s a rather odd development that white people in America took on the role of the Chinese in Indonesia or the Jews in Russia, long before they became a demographic minority, but not entirely so. Race riots have mostly happened in cities where white people had become or were on the way to becoming a minority. And all three groups share the vital characteristic of being hard-working types whose success is overestimated by the looters looking for a taste of that success without having to go out and work for it.
The hated groups are not satisfied with their lot in life, instead they go out and strive for more possessed of the peculiar belief that they can rise above their station in life through hard work and ingenuity. Their neighbors rarely appreciate this attitude. In their world someone who has more than they do probably stole it from them. And when they booze up and riot, they’re only getting back what’s rightfully theirs.
In the mythology of the looters, they are the persecuted ones, and when the government sympathizes with the looters, that is the message it sends out. The mythology of a white grip on power driven by bone-deep racism and privilege has its echoes in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a conspiracy theory that justifies every act of violence against them.
But if riots were really triggered by a black and white racial disparity, then Asians wouldn’t be the victims of African-American riot rage from New York to Los Angeles. If anyone can be exempted from charges of shipping slaves or conspiring to employ their privilege to keep people of color down, it would be Chinese and Korean immigrants. But it isn’t really race that’s the issue; it’s being a successful minority.
Chinese, Jewish and white storeowners in America are targeted by rioters for the same reason that Chinese storeowners in Indonesia are. Because they are members of an outside group who are working hard and getting ahead and that is the worst imaginable crime to people who believe that success through honest work is impossible. That anyone who succeeds has taken advantage of a rigged system and is exploiting them to get ahead."
.................................................. .
View the complete article at:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/46443