London burning - a warning to western civilizations

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 14:22.

 

Tomorrow morning this image could easily be of Cleveland, or Detroit, or Buffalo, or numerous other cities across the USA.

Dis-affected young people (and dis-affected older people) are not seeing any practical, legitamate means of productive cooperation with the status quo.

Flash mobs are perhaps a harbinger here in the USA, with Philadelphia being one of the latest cities to impose "flash mob" inspired curfews as reported on BBC (Image from BBC) .   The Associated Press has a thorough article by Paisley Dodds describing social media influences in London's crowd sourcing.

Will the US, like England, react too little, too late?  I am refering to societal balance improvements, not curfews - which will only aggravate disparities. 

 

 

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London experiencing A Clockwork Orange moment

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 08:28.

 Anthony Burgess saw it coming a half century ago, in 1962.    Read the book or Read the outline of the book A Clockwork Orange on wikipedia and you will see that the script is eirilly similar to the chaos now happening in London.   

Truth is stranger than fiction....they say.

Will the next step in London be the government mandated shut down of Blackberry messaging and other media?   In the middle east -  in the recent up risings -  the Egyptian and other governments turned off citizen communications.   Won't it be telling if the same is done in "free" and "democratic" England?

Stylish rioters & negative utopia

Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 23:45.

Clockwork Orange had an emphasis on style.  Reports are that many rioters went after expensive items of style, as well as better communications, such as a five finger upgrade of the mobile-tele.

Watch for efforts by government to track social media usage.  What sort of law would allow a general tracking of social media and cellphone use locations through cell triangalization. Would a riot have to be declared, or would the "authorities" have permission to track continuously?  And track who?  The U.K. got into CCTV much earlier than the U.S., largely because of Northern Irish acts of terror.  I read recently that a 20+ camera CCTV system is planned for Cleveland Heights' Coventry Village because of the flash mob activity.

George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948, describing a most freightening totalitarianism where CCTV also was in the home.  He didn't know about social media.  If he did, I'm sure he'd find some dreadful uses for monitoring social media. 1984 was by a Brit, about a future Britain. And U.S.