Rioting.
Looks really cool in Rage Against the Machine videos, not so cool when some self-righteous college student burns down your house with a firebomb he made by sticking a lit rag into the top of an Oozo bottle.
Greece, known mainly as the home of anal sex and feta cheese, can now add to that list “riot capital of the world”. Check out these articles; I recommend reading both:
Now, from what I gather, a teenager was shot by corrupt police officers and everyone is losing their collective shit over it. Situation sound kinda familiar?
Man, how the fuck would these people cope with being black and living in New York City? The greek kid got shot once and from the evidence it’s actually possible (though unlikely) that it might have been accidental. Ha! In New York the ‘accidental’ shootings involving police and unarmed men start at about 41 bullets and top out somewhere near 50. The cops in question don't even go to jail! You don’t see anyone rioting over here about that though do you?
The riots in Greece aren’t the result of this one incident however. As is the case with most riots, the anger of the people seems to have been steadily building against the government for a while now, simmering into a nice thick stew of hate, and the shooting is just the breaking point, catalyzing the violence seen in the last few days.
I don't live in Greece so I don't know how bad things have been but the impression I get is that since the 2004 Olympics finished, the Greek government has proven itself to be as corrupt as a Don King Production and people are now taking a page from the Twisted Sister playbook with their flaming molotov cocktailed version of 'We're not Going to Take It'.
Fair enough. You know what? governments are inherently corrupt as fuck and to see people taking forceful, visible action against this corruption is commendable. Preventing exploitation and oppression are very noble pursuits. If this was what rioting was really about I'd be all for it. Too bad it isn't. Someone please explain this shit to me:
(excerpt from one of the articles above)
"Hooded youths pulled a driver from her car and set it alight in front of her..."
Good one there hooded youths. Way to stick it to the man. I'm sure burning this old woman's car will serve as a poignant metaphor for the people's resistance to government corruption. Or maybe now she'll just be an old lady with a pile of ash that used to be her car. Whatever – FUCK THE MAN!!! LET'S BURN SHIT!!
See, this is what I don't understand about rioting; what are you proving by destroying the businesses and possessions of your fellow citizens? How is this in any way 'sticking it to the man'? Anger toward the police I can understand. Destruction of property or symbols that are representative of government power I can maybe understand. Burning down family businesses in a fit of inarticulate rage against society? Sorry virtuous liberators of The Movement, you've lost me on that one. Consider this excerpt which is also taken from one of the articles above:
But that has been of little comfort to shopowners, who saw their businesses go up in flames.
"Nobody seems to care about the employees at the burnt shops. What will their fate be now over the Christmas season?" asked one shop assistant on the popular Ermou shopping street who would only give her first name, Eleni.
The problem with rioting is: for every righteous, well-intentioned, anti-government protestor who views the riots as a vehicle for real change, there are 3 motherfuckers throwing rocks through a storefront cause they want a free Blu-Ray player and flatscreen. The teenagers probably burn shit and fight cause they're angsty and bored. In theory riots seem like a good way to make a real statement against the government but in reality it’s a lot of disorganized Lord of the Flies bullshit that ends up hurting The People more than anything else. There’s no way you can convince me that destroying your country’s infrastructure so that you can end up paying taxes for the next 20 years for reconstruction projects to build it back up is in any way a sound course of action.
While this may be the first time we’re hearing about it over here in North America, rioting is nothing new in Greece. There have been many smaller, more contained riots that have happened there this year between the police and a growing Anarchist faction comprised mainly of, believe it or not – University students! Who would’ve guessed right?
Listen, I’ll fully admit I know nothing about the political situation in Greece, but fucking Anarchy? Seriously?
If you’re in college and you meet a student chick at the bar and you want to invite her back to your dorm to smoke out under your Castro/Guevara poster while discussing Anarchy and other ‘important’ social ideas found on Sex Pistols albums then I fully encourage you to do so. You’re 20 years old and so this shit is cool and dangerous, right? Gives you that rush like when you were 12 hiding in the backyard smoking your dad’s cigarettes right? Go for it man! Talk your fucking heart out. If you can convey enough passion and sincerity about your hate for the government you might even be able to get your dick sucked.
20 year old Anarchist: Hey, baby you know what? Fuck the State!
Organic College Girl: Oooooh. You're so dangerous and cool.
20 year old Anarchist: Yeah well, I just tell it like it is man.
Organic College Girl: Wow. I bet your cock tastes like Freedom!
20 year old Anarchist: There’s only one way to find out baby…
Good for you!! You’ve just participated in that age old student ritual of getting a girl to blow you cause you made her think that you’re a rebel. Score. Nicely done. Guess what though? That’s about all Anarchy is good for: getting you blown in college.
Go ahead: sew the patch to your jean jacket and help the world to see Anarchy in its most useful form – as a fashion statement.
In the real world Anarchy is the bullshit happening in Greece right now. It’s honest men having their independently owned businesses destroyed. It’s women scared to walk the streets. It’s people fighting under the premise of wanting to eliminate political corruption while the riots they incite hypocritically enable looting and theft. At present the total damage to Greek businesses and property is hovering somewhere around the 200 - 250 million euro mark.
In the end, when the last fire is put out and things are back under control, the Greeks are going to realize that they have, yet again, just been fucking each other in the ass.
While this may be the first time we’re hearing about it over here in North America, rioting is nothing new in Greece. There have been many smaller, more contained riots that have happened there this year between the police and a growing Anarchist faction comprised mainly of, believe it or not – University students! Who would’ve guessed right?
Listen, I’ll fully admit I know nothing about the political situation in Greece, but fucking Anarchy? Seriously?
If you’re in college and you meet a student chick at the bar and you want to invite her back to your dorm to smoke out under your Castro/Guevara poster while discussing Anarchy and other ‘important’ social ideas found on Sex Pistols albums then I fully encourage you to do so. You’re 20 years old and so this shit is cool and dangerous, right? Gives you that rush like when you were 12 hiding in the backyard smoking your dad’s cigarettes right? Go for it man! Talk your fucking heart out. If you can convey enough passion and sincerity about your hate for the government you might even be able to get your dick sucked.
20 year old Anarchist: Hey, baby you know what? Fuck the State!
Organic College Girl: Oooooh. You're so dangerous and cool.
20 year old Anarchist: Yeah well, I just tell it like it is man.
Organic College Girl: Wow. I bet your cock tastes like Freedom!
20 year old Anarchist: There’s only one way to find out baby…
Good for you!! You’ve just participated in that age old student ritual of getting a girl to blow you cause you made her think that you’re a rebel. Score. Nicely done. Guess what though? That’s about all Anarchy is good for: getting you blown in college.
Go ahead: sew the patch to your jean jacket and help the world to see Anarchy in its most useful form – as a fashion statement.
In the real world Anarchy is the bullshit happening in Greece right now. It’s honest men having their independently owned businesses destroyed. It’s women scared to walk the streets. It’s people fighting under the premise of wanting to eliminate political corruption while the riots they incite hypocritically enable looting and theft. At present the total damage to Greek businesses and property is hovering somewhere around the 200 - 250 million euro mark.
In the end, when the last fire is put out and things are back under control, the Greeks are going to realize that they have, yet again, just been fucking each other in the ass.
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7 comments:
brilliant.
It's hard not to get ensnared by the mob mentality, especially if you're already disenfranchised by the actions of a corrupt government.
I've never been part of a full-blown riot, but I've seen how easy it is to get caught up in a wave of misplaced hatred. Case in point: When I was in high school, there were reports of an incident which may or may not have occurred (the details are now shrouded in legendry) - it went a little something like this:
- Guy goes for a walk with girlfriend
- Guy and girl get jumped by hoodlums
- Guy's crew swears revenge against hoodlums
So far, so good - right? Here's where it gets scary. Eventually, word gets out that there's going to be a mutually-agreed upon confrontation between the perpetrators and the plaintiff. Said altercation was to take place behind the Mississauga Valley Community Centre. But when I say "the word got out", I mean it - when the fateful night finally arrived, there converged upon the Community Centre a HUGE MOB, hundreds strong, of angry high-school kids - myself included. Many of these kids even brought weapons. I saw baseball bats, butterfly knives... One guy even brought a home-made billy club which he crafted in shop class (how did the teacher not notice that?!). This wasn't an altercation - it was shaping up to be all-out war.
Fortunately, that war never happened, as the perps never showed. What happened next was just as scary. Hundreds of high-school kids milling about with pent-up rage building up and no vent in sight is bad news. Eventually, people started lashing out at anything they could get their hands on. I saw the guy with the baseball bat beating an unfortunate sapling half to death, as if the tree itself had insulted his mama.
The bottom line is, 99.9% of the people who showed up had absolutely nothing to do with the initial incident, but they were swept up in the excitement of confrontation. I see a lot of that paralleled in the current events taking place in Greece. What does it say about humanity? Are we basically violent savages who are itching for blood? Or are we just innocents who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
You decide.
@ Ron
Great comment. Maybe the best ever on this blog.
If you would allow me to speak to your observation using the words of the late, yet commercially immortal 'Pac:
"Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races"
Grammatical errors aside I'm sure you understand what he's getting at.
The mob mentality has surely has an effect in the riots taking place in Greece.
The little old lady who was removed from her car only to see it be torched is most likely a random act of rioting. However it is easy for us to assume that many of these store owners whose businesses have been destroyed we innocent as well.
Government corruption often involves more than just the members of a political party. It is the members of those parties who are indeed the corrupt politicians, but what about the store owner who is receiving taxable imports from foreign countries while those same corrupt politicians turn a blind eye for some type of pay off.
Is he a corrupted citizen?
These articles do not go into detail about what stores were not attacked...
Were particular business owners targetted? Likely not because yet rioters usually are not that well organized, however it is possible that angry rioters are upset with corrupt government and citizens.
L-Jax
Someone should lead that riot over to Turkey and fuck those gypseys up and take back our land.
@ Anonymous who posted the comment about taking back land from the "Turkish Gypseys"...
That comment has Big Mangos written all over it.
It's like LA and Katrina but all Greek to me.
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