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Thread: The UK is on fire...

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by O.S.O.K. View Post
    The UK isn't socialist?

    The US's gun violence is higher than the UK's

    The nasty student crybabies will break into the national armory and take over the government in the UK?

    You have got to be kidding me. What a self-deluded bunch of public hallucinations that is.

    Joey, Jim Jones is on the phone for you - says your Koolaid is ready
    No shit. These Euro Bitches are fucking pathetic.

  2. #42
    Senior Member Skarmajunga's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Joey View Post
    Sure, the US is a more violent society than the UK, with a gun-murder rate five times that of Britain. Your cops are out of control - they're a paramilitary force.

    If British cops pulled guns on demonstrators there'd be bloody revolution. The Brits would raid the armouries and bring down the state. The whole nation would explode. The government, of course, knows that and treads carefully when it comes to shooting ordinary members of the public (much as they'd like to).

    So, yet again, we see poor old America tormented by your ludicrous 2nd Amendment. Perhaps you don't realise how much ordinary Brits, and others around the world, feel sorry for you? You've got yourselves in a pretty pickle.

    Which explains why you puff your little chests out and wank on about "socialism." You're like an addict who'll say anything to avoid confronting his addiction.
    Lol your too funny, go ahead try and raid the armories, you peasants wouldnt have a clue how to even work the safety much less hit the broad side of a barn.
    Cheerio mate

  3. #43
    Super Moderator 63DH8's Avatar

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    Seems our British kiddies either had history censored for them, or simply too ignorant to understand why our Founding Fathers had the 2nd Amendment amended into the US Constitution.

    Syphilis and Kangaroo boy (joey), our Founding Fathers kicked you Brits our of our Country with firearms. They understand, for our Nation to remain out from under the thumb of tyranny, we needed the means to defend ourselves. First, let's define "arms". The US Military defines "arms" as the weapons that the soldiers carry into combat. Our Founding Fathers wanted the citizens to be on the same footing as the military as far as what to carry into battle. This is how we kicked your ass back to your island. One of my favorite quotes is:
    "You cannot invade the mainland United States.
    There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."
    -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

    From our own President:
    Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.
    -George Washington

    You see, the gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
    If I weren't supposed to shoot guns, why did God give me trigger fingers?

    There's a point in your life when you get tired of trying to fix everything and trying to make everyone happy. When you finally decide to quit, it's NOT giving up. It's realizing you don't need certain people and the bullshit they bring to your life.


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  4. #44
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by 63DH8 View Post
    Seems our British kiddies either had history censored for them, or simply too ignorant to understand why our Founding Fathers had the 2nd Amendment amended into the US Constitution.

    Syphilis and Kangaroo boy (joey), our Founding Fathers kicked you Brits our of our Country with firearms. They understand, for our Nation to remain out from under the thumb of tyranny, we needed the means to defend ourselves. First, let's define "arms". The US Military defines "arms" as the weapons that the soldiers carry into combat. Our Founding Fathers wanted the citizens to be on the same footing as the military as far as what to carry into battle. This is how we kicked your ass back to your island. One of my favorite quotes is:
    "You cannot invade the mainland United States.
    There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."
    -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

    From our own President:
    Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.
    -George Washington

    You see, the gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
    I get the feeling Joey's going to read this with a "doe in headlights" expression." He won't understand.

  5. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joey View Post
    If British cops pulled guns on demonstrators there'd be bloody revolution. The Brits would raid the armouries and bring down the state. The whole nation would explode. The government, of course, knows that and treads carefully when it comes to shooting ordinary members of the public (much as they'd like to)
    LMAO
    So a society of sheep are just going to grow some balls and arm themselves. LOL
    It will never happen Joey. they will sit there just like the Jews did during the holocaust.
    even if they did manage to arm themselves, they would be easy targets for anyone that was familiar with firearms. after all, Guns are BAAAAAD Joey. And with the exception of your military, nobody in your general population is familiar with them.
    You gave up your right to defend yourself and your family when they neutered you. So get over the revolution shit and get back to fattening up for the harvest.

  6. #46
    Moderator & Team Gunsnet Platinum 07/2011 O.S.O.K.'s Avatar

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    A little roast 'Joey' for Christmas this year Blacksmith?

    Last edited by O.S.O.K.; 12-11-2010 at 05:03 PM.
    ~Nemo me impune lacessit~




  7. #47
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Solidus-snake View Post
    I dont agree with your bashing of the second ammendment, however if the brits really are rioting due to lying, crooked politicians then i applaud them. Much better than here, where we just sit around bitching, moaning, and writing letters (which im sure our politicians pitch in the hearth) instead of taking action.
    I've tried to explain the intricate details of the reasons behind the violence in this article. Hope it sheds some light on the subject.
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

  8. #48
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Gonzo GED View Post
    Technically, yes.

    A 17 year old member of this forum :http://politicsworldwide.com/search....=active_topics came over here to troll. (in all fairness we started trolling there first, but most of us were banned outright for thought crime. While the mods and admins claim free speech and fairness, you will be banned for dissagreeing with them.)

    Anyways, the kid feeling outnumbered, asked some of his cohorts to log in here for backup. The only problem is, even the adult members of that forum are as dumb as teenagers. Better read, and well stocked with five dollar words, but no more wise than the silly child who came here in the first place.

    Other trolls have srouted up from over there, but they don't last long. Can't take the heat. They are a bunch of effite little pussies after all...
    If I remember correctly the only person to be banned on PW was chiak47, because he was absolutely determined to turn himself into a political martyr for the right and claim the bragging rights of having been banned from a "leftie" forum. We thought it was only fair to come and repay the kindness by venturing over here for our winter break.

    You'll have to excuse our lack of contributions over the past couple of days - what with London playing host to pitched battles between students and police, we've had other things on our collective minds.
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

  9. #49
    Roadhouse Groupee

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    These inter-forum spats are good, clean fun. Gun Nuts v Euro-Lefties...


  10. #50
    Senior Member matshock's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by JAMC View Post
    I've tried to explain the intricate details of the reasons behind the violence in this article. Hope it sheds some light on the subject.
    Please post the text of "Yellow Thursday and the emancipation of Gen Y".

  11. #51
    Moderator & Team Gunsnet Platinum 07/2011 O.S.O.K.'s Avatar

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    Just for the record Joey, you are definately the "alien" and we are the predator. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea....
    ~Nemo me impune lacessit~




  12. #52
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by matshock View Post
    Please post the text of "Yellow Thursday and the emancipation of Gen Y".
    Can't you open the link or something?
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

  13. #53
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by O.S.O.K. View Post
    Just for the record Joey, you are definately the "alien" and we are the predator. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea....
    Thanks for clearing that up, I was just about to ask.

    Man, we ugly.
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

  14. #54
    Senior Member matshock's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by JAMC View Post
    Can't you open the link or something?
    Sure, I just don't trust you enough to not fiddle with the content or act pissy if I post it.

  15. #55
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by matshock View Post
    Sure, I just don't trust you enough to not fiddle with the content or act pissy if I post it.
    Is there a particular section you want posted here? I would post the entire thing (still can if you insist) but it's soooooooooooo long.
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

  16. #56
    Senior Member matshock's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by JAMC View Post
    Is there a particular section you want posted here? I would post the entire thing (still can if you insist) but it's soooooooooooo long.
    Right here is fine- we can handle it.

  17. #57
    Team GunsNet Silver 04/2014 El Jefe's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by O.S.O.K. View Post
    Just for the record Joey, you are definately the "alien" and we are the predator. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea....
    No way, the teeth aren't fucked up enough.
    Returns June 3rd.


  18. #58
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    Yellow Thursday and the emancipation of Gen Y

    Yellow Thursday and the emancipation of Gen Y
    Here you go matshock, as requested.

    For me there will be one enduring image of December 9th, 2010 – a day I can now only think of as Yellow Thursday – not just because it happens to be the colour choice of the beleaguered Liberal Democrats at the eye of the political storm, but because it’s emblematic of their complete cowardice in the face of ethical adversity. A cowardice that would suggest the Liberal Democrats who threw their lot in with the “ayes to the right” possess a longer yellow streak than a stampede of diarrhoritic camels.

    And no, the image in question is not the farcical sight of the police mouting a daring, corrageous charge into the protester’s ranks to arrest… Santa Claus. Although, if I’m honest, I chuckled when I saw that. It was a moment on the BBC news channel when Ben Brown’s cameraman panned through the darkening air and thickening smoke to reveal a large placard bearing the message “We are not your slaves”.

    I’m still undecided by the way whether Ben Brown was just a bit narked with the BBC for sending him out into the middle of a riot armed with nothing but a microphone, or whether he was in fact the master of ceremonies for the anarchists. In a way the most anarchic thing to have occurred on yellow thursday wasn’t the rioting, or the police charges – it was Ben Brown, at 7:30 in the evening, on the BBC, suggesting to his cameraman that he’d like to get a shot of the graffiti on the treasury building knowing full well that it said…. “FUCK THE FUCKING TORY CUNTS AND THEIR FUCKING CUNTISH WAYS!!!” – or words to that effect. I half-expected the BBC to choke to death on it’s own middle-class manners right there and then.

    Over the top?

    My initial reaction to the placard was probably much the same as as most other left-leaning people taking a keen interest in the day’s events – something along the lines of; look, I know what they’ve just passed is deeply unpleasant, but that’s probably overstating things a bit. In my mind, the phrase awoke memories of grainy, black and white footage of a bespectacled gentleman wearing a sandwich board, emblazened with the beautifully succinct phrase “I AM A MAN”, in 1960′s America. Considering that the student holding up the placard in parliament square had probably never known anything like that kind of immense prejudice, violence and intimidation in their own life as a teenager in contemporary Britain, my concious mind wanted to dismiss it as over-zealous and rather clumsy sloganeering on the part of the protester.

    After all, slavery – a system in which people are a legally owned, tradeable comodity and employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence or other extreme hardship – has been illegal since the dawn of the modern age. Nevertheless, as yellow thursday rolled on into the evening – it’s designated hue kept alive in the dark of parliament square by the golden glow of the burning placards and the flourescent yellow tabards of the police horses (the protesters couldn’t see a 2-tonne horse galloping straight at them? It’s health and safety gone mad!!!), the placard’s message wouldn’t vacate my head. And then, as a protester casually flung a piece of breeze block at the police front ranks, the realisation hit me – hit me like a lightning bolt to the tinfoil hat.

    “We are not your slaves, I am a man.”

    Disenfranchisement

    There are two fundamental sources of political power in society – the wallet and the ballot box; and its possible to construct a strong argument that, in practice, the protesters smashing up parliament square on yellow thursday hold no political power whatsoever. A large part of that argument would be based on the on the suggestion that gen Y may be the first cohort since the Representation of the People act of 1928 (equal votes for men and women) to experience genuine political disenfranchisement in the UK.

    By virtue of simple demographics, generation Y find themselves at a substantial numerical disadvantage to the baby-boomers. In certain systems of representative democracy (as our system professes to be), the relative sizes of each generation to eachother – and the conflicting political objectives each generation wishes to pursue – are critical in determining both the outcome of elections and the formation of policies by parties intent on winning. Or I should say, winning at any cost.

    The dysfunctional, regionalised and amplificatory nature of our own…. ‘unique’ first-past-the-post electoral system exaggerates the relative importance of the few swing voters of the largest cohort, meaning in practice a tiny number of venerated middle-aged baby-boomers actually choose the government of the United Kingdom. The abhorrent reality of our current political system is that some votes are counted more equal than others. This goes a long way to explain why every major domestic policy of every government dreamed up the last 30 years (including the one that sparked the riots) has been overwhelmingly to the advantage of that small, sainted group.

    Blocked at every turn

    The political process in Britain has been reduced from a grandiose ideological conflict encompassing every aspect of the human condition, to parties whoring for the fickle favour of an undeserving elite that have and feel no responsibility toward the society they’re bleeding dry by proxy. Indeed, lure of the political red-light zone within our electoral system is so strong that when a party like the Liberal Democrats do manage to attract enough support from a rag-tag collection of marginalised groups to provide a small, but significant (and badly-needed) voice within the parliamentary system, half their elected representatives arrive at the conclusion that they’ve no obligation to abide by the general principles and specific policies they were elected by their constituents to uphold and deliver; instead thinking of their democratic mandate as nothing more than an opportunity to put themselves in the knocking shop window – presumably in the hope that the tiny group of fêted baby-boomers monopolised by the big parties for 80 years might fancy some fresh meat. “Look how hard we can flagellate the students you don’t want to pay for – that turn you on?”

    I apoligise by the way if anyone now has the mental image of Nick Clegg in suspenders burned into their subconsious mind – and if you didn’t, I apologise again for putting it there by bringing it up.

    This is the underlying reason peaceful protest proved a complete waste of time and energy; in order for peaceful protest to carry any political weight, the cause it advocates must be backed by a clear, distinct group within society who’s alienation would command a significant electoral penalty. Because they hold very little political and economic power, this was never the case where the students were concerned, and the politicians were essentially at liberty to completely dismiss their anger on the grounds that while they may have been in the right, as a group they carried no might.

    Talk of political disenfranchisement may initially sound hollow when you consider that the students lighting fires in parliament square may have the right to cast a vote and to protest peacefully; but those rights, fought for over centuries by ordinary people that experienced similar alienation from the political proces, have been very subtly and quietly nullified over the course of 3 decades by a deft combination of applied political science (in pursuit of electoral victory) and individualist economic policy that has concentrated economic power in fewer and fewer private hands. For the class of 2010, the first and harshest lesson has been that the act of voting and protesting peacefully contains no practical participatory value (hence widespread apathy) and holds no hope of delivering a meaningful change for the better. You are allowed to vote, but from the student’s perspective the purpose of voting is to decide which sycophant of the baby-boomers gets to whip them into obedience. Suddenly that placard doesn’t seem quite as clumsy as I first thought.

    Mummy I’ve been fighting again

    Hope is an important word. In an absolute belter of an address in 2008, Tony Benn remarked that progress was driven by “two flames that have always been burning in the human heart; the flame of anger against injustice, and the flame of hope that you can build a better world”. Attempt to suffocate the flame of hope within a marginalised group by imposing the kind of measures that passed on yellow thursday and expect the unspent fuel to be diverted to the flame of anger.

    When hopes are choked, anger is boiling and no safe release valve by way of political representation is provided, the only outlet for that anger is destruction, and the only recourse available to those wishing to contain the inferno and retain political control is to fight fire with fire – and meet violence with violence. As the politicians resolved to vanquish the student cause completely – and offer no meaningful compromises, the scenes witnessed in parliament square (and elsewhere in London) on yellow thursday became an inevitability.

    Anger is what drove thousands of students to smash up everything they could get their hands on – or reach with a long pole. Anger is what motivated thousands of students to travel hundreds of miles to the capital, in the freezing cold to show their faces to the politicians destroying their hopes for the future. These gestures, noble and high-minded as they may have been on the part of the students, were futile. The politicians ears are shut to their calls because they understand that anger alone does not necessarily represent a large threat to their comfortable orthodoxy – so long as it doesn’t exceed the state’s capability to contain it.

    This anger at the moment is still directed at inanimate and intangeable things that can’t feel pain; buildings, glass, ideas – even policemen, when they don the teflon skin of the riot uniform, bark out edicts to angry demonstrators and enforce the politician’s will by wielding the truncheon, assume the role of a nameless, faceless, numbered tool of state enforcement in the minds of the protesters. It’s sensible to assume that some of the people underneath the robocop uniform, particularly if they have children of their own, may even empathise with the protesters and their demands. Plod with two kids is unlikely to be keen on the prospect of having to support both of them through university at astronomical personal cost.

    We shouldn’t forget that the police are part of the public sector – civil servants who are just as vulnerable to George Osborne’s axe wielding as the students they’re being asked to keep under control, and of whom the steepest personal demands are being made in the line of public duty. In a strange kind of a way, it’s the catch 22 situation the police find themselves in which is the most absurd thing about this whole farce. We may scoff at their inability to deal with the kids on the sink estates with multiple ASBOs, but the police were never supposed to be the Mary Whitehouse’s Army of the nation, dispensing moral fortitude wherever the politicians had long since given up attempting to aleviate the causes of social breakdown. They’re supposed to be out there catching the serious criminals. Fixing disfunctional society was supposed to be the politicians job.

    Boot stamping on human face forever

    There can be little doubt that the issue of university funding is beginning to polarize wider society, but it has not yet reached a level that could be considered ‘dangerous’. I don’t for instance believe that the vast majority of students hold any kind of personal vendetta against individual police officers, and wouldn’t dream of randomly attacking a police officer in the pub when they were off duty. This has not yet become personal, although the longer it drags on, the greater the risk. If the underlying greavances are left unaddressed and the anger felt by segments of the population is allowed to fester, that anger will eventually morph into hatred, which is a much more terrifying prospect.

    An angry man still has a rational basis for his actions, even if those actions are violent or destructive, and will eventually relent once the the antagonism has been addressed and his sense of injustice has cooled. A man driven by hatred will never be satisfied, never change his mind, cannot be reasoned with, cannot be negotiated with and is capable of committing the most heinous acts imaginable. Wilfully perpetrating injustices of enormous magnitude on a young, apoliticial generation with limited life experience and elastic minds represents a huge social risk. A generation warped by hatred would, at best, cause our society a lifetime of severe problems – at worst it would have the potential to destroy it completely.

    It is vital to remember, even in the furious white heat of pitched battles, that police officers can of course feel pain, even under their kevlar riot gear, and that yellow thursday saw a number of injuries to both police and protesters that no-one would ever want to see repeated. Unfortunately I cannot see the pattern of politicians (who are the ones ultimately responsible) forcing through deeply unpopular policies through parliament, then tasking the police to contain the backlash being broken any time soon – so I can only assume that many more people will get hurt before the cycle of political betrayal is eventually broken.

    No truce with the fury

    The argument advanced by many on the left that the destructive actions of the protesters were the result of, or a reaction to the police provocation and antagonism on the ground in parliament square is a red herring at best, and a convenient PR soundbyte at worst – the antagonism lies with the politicians, and their indifference to the plight of a generation that is being denied political representation, economic opportunity and even the very idea of hope itself. With or without a police presence, the only conceivable way that the destruction and civic disobedience seen in parliament square could have been avoided was for the politicians trying to rob the young to have backed down. And that is still the only way further violence and destruction by the students can be avoided.

    The students, and the countless other groups in society that will be hit by the bill for the baby-boomer’s indulgences, could save everyone a lot of time and embarassment by openly admitting what most of us instinctively know to be true: that perfectly sane and rational people are prepared to use reciprocal violence against the machinery of state when it becomes clear that the politicians controlling it no longer represent their interests but instead seek only to exact their obedience. Being slow to anger is a national characteristic of the British people (of all generations), but we are not pacifists – never have been, never will be.

    The students, the politicians and the commentators like the NUS who’ve formed a mile-long queue around the building to denounce the destruction of yellow thursday, must face up to a fundamental truth at the heart of systems of representative democracy – the mandate it grants our representatives does not absolve them of responsibility for making wrong decisions (ineptitude), or betraying the citizens they’re supposed to represent (abuse of mandate). The cloak of democratic legitimacy only covers so much wrongdoing. When enough injustice is exposed in the cold light of day to form a critical mass, the result is widespread anger. Anger that the political process no longer has the capability to placate – or endure.

    When politicians make mistakes, or deliberately abuse their position by passing laws that their constituents vehemently oppose, the only counterbalance that can prevent the political system from collapsing or descending into despotism is for the wronged elements of the citizenry to actively intervene and force the state to change it’s mind by overwhelming it’s capability to impose it’s will. The desire for individuals to band together and fight for the idea of justice is, and always has been, the last line of defence against tyranny.

    Move, move, move any mountain

    The will of the state was last openly challenged in 1990 when the bulk of the population became intransigent at the imposition of the poll tax, and at some point after the impending cuts of 2010/11 bite; when the flames of anger have spread beyond the students and created an inferno in wider society, it will happen again. And when the inferno outstrips the state’s capability to contain it (as it did in 1990), the politicians leveraging the state’s power against the people will be forced to admit that they were wrong and backtrack – or face political annihilation (just like the Iron Lady did) as a new set of representatives snatch political legitimacy from their grasping, unrepentant hands.

    Those that marched on yellow thursday, and in particular those aspiring to become university students, cannot (for obvious reasons of parental dependency and/or minimal time spent in the world of work) be considered to hold political power as a result of economic wealth or ownership of land, resources or industry. In that respect the bulk of the protesters that smashed up parliament square are completely at the mercy of the altruistic or individualistic motives of their parents, and their parents’ contemporaries. I dare venture that a fair number of the protesters had to borrow the cost of the train ticket to London from their immediate family.

    There can be little doubt that the students’ generation holds no political power and commands no economic means. The sum total of their practical political, economic and social alienation is equivalent to the status of second class citizenry – it certainly bares many of the hallmarks.

    Second-class citizen
    Typical impediments facing second-class citizens include, but are not limited to, disenfranchisement (a lack or loss of voting rights), limitations on civil or military service (not including conscription in every case), as well as restrictions on language, religion, education, freedom of movement and association, weapons ownership, marriage, housing and property ownership.


    If the machinery of progress has indeed been thrown into reverse, and in the space of 50 years society has regressed to the point where it’s considered necessary to restate the basic principle “we are not your slaves”, the finger of accusation must surely be pointed squarely at the incumbent generation – the baby-boomers – the torch-carriers. We must ask the question; do the flames of anger and hope still burn in their hearts? I find it impossible to believe that they’ve been extinguished completely – but I don’t doubt that they’ve been dimmed by three decades of the politicians catering for their every decadent desire.

    …and from here?

    If they’re to be successful in their efforts, the students and the wider generation from which they originate must unite around a set of common demands that spell out what they do want, rather than protest continuously against what they don’t. I imagine that set of demands might end up looking something like this…

    * True democracy, in which thier vote is not marginalised by quirks of the system.
    * Economic equality, so that they may attain financial independence by their own efforts.
    * Upholding of the intergenerational contract, so that the preceeding generation may not absolve itself of it’s responsibilities towards the next.

    Only when these demands have been met can Generation Y hope to emancipate themselves from the status they’ve been arbitrarily ascribed within our society – that of second class citizens.

    The tactics the students employ to go about achieving their objectives are every bit as important as the objective themselves. They’ve tried voting, lobbying, peaceful protest and even violent protest – all have failed thus far, and I don’t believe simply increasing their ferocity will yield results. Perhaps the biggest advantage the students have over their political enemies is the sheer audacity of youth. Finding a way to harness that could be the crucial factor in their campaign for emancipation.

    In round one at Millbank tower the students scored a massive victory by totally overrunning Tory HQ. Having realised that the protesters weren’t prepared to stick to the script, the state and the police dusted themselves off and brought their ‘A’ game to round two in parliament square. The students also didn’t vary their approach a great deal in round two – they employed the old tactics of planned march routes (although it deviated) and huge crowds ripe to be kettled. These were tactics that played into the hands of the police and the state – tactics they were more than ready to counteract. The damage caused elsewhere in London that night gives an indication of the force the protesters can command when they’re unpredictable and think on their feet. If the students still have the stomach for the struggle – and they all vowed they did in the aftermath of yellow thursday – round three will be something we’ve not seen before, and something that will directly target the ability of the state to restrain their anger.

    And if you’ve read all the way down to the end and are left thinking “why haven’t you mentioned the royal car being attacked?”, you’ve completely missed the point.
    Let the shitstorm commence.
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

  19. #59
    Team GunsNet Silver 04/2014 El Jefe's Avatar

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    So, even when the economy is in the toilet and the government is broke, they should keep the soup line open?

    Darwin had thoughts about you people.
    Returns June 3rd.


  20. #60
    Senior Member JAMC's Avatar

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    You'll probably love this article too...

    Inside the Parliament Square kettle
    In wartime there are no economic arguments at all. I've never heard a general say "I can't bomb Baghdad this month because I've exceeded my budget". In wartime you do whatever is required, and we should adopt the principle that in peacetime you do whatever is required - Tony Benn

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