“Random Violence” a sign of things to come
Over the last year we have watched violent protests in Greece and the United Kingdom over cuts to public benefits, as those nations are being forced to come to grips with the reality of gross over-spending and over-promising by their governments. Whether this reactive violence will spread to our shores is not yet clear, but the danger signs already are appearing.
Earlier this year, for example, union activists in Wisconsin staged protests that, while not overtly violent, bordered on deteriorating into such. These protests centered around measures proposed by the Badger State’s new governor to reduce benefits and collective bargaining rights enjoyed by public-sector workers, to help close a multi-billion dollar budget gap.
The reactions by beneficiaries of Wisconsin voters’ largesse were typical of people who have become dependent on government in one manner or another, and who view such benefits as “entitlements” to which they enjoy a fundamental and irrevocable right. When any person or institution then threatens those entitlements – whether a president, a prime minister, or federal or state legislators – the reactions become very personal and potentially violent.
In England, a country which has long viewed itself as far more “civilized” than to engage in domestic violence, was shocked last December when mobs of young people protesting cuts to education, attacked a limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife to a charity event. More recently, protests sparked ostensibly by a police shooting, has morphed into widespread violence and looting by mobs of young people, many not even in their teens..
Some observers, including former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, suggest that the continuing violence stems from cuts in social programs advocated by Prime Minister David Cameron and his coalition government.
Livingstone, a self-described socialist, seems to be impliedly condoning the violence, even as he coyly chastises those who participate. He has said that, “[a] lot of these young people, they are criminals, yes, but there’s a disengagement – they feel no-one at the top of society, in government or City Hall, cares about them or speaks for them.”
In reality, sentiments such as those espoused by Livingstone are nothing more than petty excuses. These youth know exactly what they are doing. As one female protester explained to a reporter, “It’s the rich people. It’s the people who have all got businesses. That’s why all this is happening, because of the rich people.”
This is class warfare taken to the next level; from political rhetoric to street-level violence. It is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals resurrected for the 21st Century.
Sadly, such madness is not limited to England; and is fueled by political rhetoric heard from Athens to Washington. The results are eerily similar. So-called “flash mobs,” coordinated via social media communications, are taking to streets and attacking innocent people in the U.S. just as in countries from Europe to the Middle East. Within our country, the attacks are not isolated to any specific region, and have been reported in several cities across the country, from the Midwest to the East Coast.
Racial animosities as well as economic hardships serve seemingly as catalysts for these violent incidents – further fueled by political rhetoric designed to subtly inflame resentment by those who do not share in economic rewards to the same degree as others. Endless news loops of talking heads stressing negative economic news and concomitant blame add more fuel to the philosophical fires.
Perhaps, as some observers opine hopefully, these acts of violence are but random and transient phenomena. To others, they portend a dark and frightening denouement to the Nanny State gone bankrupt. In either event, we ignore the danger signs at our own deep peril.
By Bob Barr — The Barr Code
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161 comments Add your comment
parasite
August 15th, 2011
3:19 pm
ugay99′,
You’ve misplaced your anger and you’ve got shat for brains.
Civilian
August 15th, 2011
3:20 pm
The Democrats have been genius at creating a middle class dependent upon the government. This enables them to use government funds to buy their votes to keep the dems in office wiht entitlement programs. Bill Clinton was a master of this philosphy. It is nothing more than modern day slavery. When the government teat is lopped off, a revolt will be inevitable.
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:22 pm
Civilian…..AMEN!!!!
the greedy generation
August 15th, 2011
3:22 pm
By the people, for the people is history today.
Monetary greed and wastefulness going to Company CEO’s, Board of Education CEO’s, Georgia Lottery CEO’s, College Coaches, College Presidents, U.S. Defense Contractors, etc. etc.
Outrageous salaries with even more outrageous bonuses.
Pure 100% Greed
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:28 pm
The Greedy…..and you feel they create their own salaries? haha Get a clue dude.
splavistic
August 15th, 2011
3:29 pm
Bobby, Did you write about your horror at the Tea Party violence, er ’scuse me, the POTENTIAL Tea Party violence? All the radical right-wing violence of late? No? You just focused on the “not overtly” violent labor protestors in Wisconsin. They were not overtly, so therefore they were NOT violent. You, sir, are a cad and a sh1* stirrer.
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:31 pm
splavistic…..please feel free to post about “tea party’ violence and right wing violence. I would like to read it.
parasite
August 15th, 2011
3:32 pm
greedy,
I concur. Beware the christian business man for he will rob you blind while smiling and qouting scripture.
parasite
August 15th, 2011
3:34 pm
the tea party of today is yesteryear’s klan and natzi members.
" Bail Out " ................. to big & greedy to fail
August 15th, 2011
3:35 pm
The Republicans hae been genius at stomping the middle class. This enables them to let insane profits go to a few chosen ones ( like Godman Sachs ) while the Republicans line their pockets also. George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover were masters of this philosopy. It is nothing more than modern day slavery.
" Bail Out " ................... too big & greedy to fail
August 15th, 2011
3:36 pm
Enter your Republican comments here:
" Bail Out " ................... too big & greedy to fail
August 15th, 2011
3:37 pm
I mean Goldman Sachs.
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:43 pm
Parasite…..HAHAHAHAHAHAAH Please keep going….you just made me laugh outloud!! HAHAHAHA
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:44 pm
“Bail Out”…..slavery? Really? Slavery? haha
WOW! What is your level of education. Please be honest.
Ezra
August 15th, 2011
3:48 pm
Random violence! Are you kidding or are you playing lawyer now? That is the mantra of the progressive liberals and has always been that way. Remember the spiking of trees, burning lumber yards, global warming, and now CO2. You are part of the problem Bob because you and others in your party have allowed these extremist to take over the Democratic party. Cynthia Tucker is gone to poison the minds of UGA students, please do not take her place at the AJC. Random violence?
parasite
August 15th, 2011
3:50 pm
ugay99′,
If you enjoy laughing so much, look in the mirror you’ll be in stitches.
Ezra
August 15th, 2011
3:52 pm
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:44 pm
Remember you can not debate a STOP sign.
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
3:55 pm
Parasite….again another intelligent comment. How old are you? 4? I am rubber you’re glue…..blah blah blah.
parasite
August 15th, 2011
3:56 pm
You can see the tea-party throughout history whether blowing up federal buildings or black churches-meet the new boss same as the old boss.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will crush the heads of the perverted New World Order integrationist crowd and their devilish black minions
August 15th, 2011
4:01 pm
UGA 1999…Amen!
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
4:01 pm
Parasite….please post proof in your claim that the Tea Party has blown up government buildings and/or black churches.
the Truth
August 15th, 2011
4:04 pm
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
4:01 pm
I hate when whites try to lie!..we both know the tea party is the modern day version of the KKK..If republicans get back into office, I think it’s time to kick some butt!
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
4:05 pm
The truth….please post proof that the Tea Party is the new KKK.
Devil's Advocate
August 15th, 2011
4:05 pm
UGA 1999,
Who do you think sets salaries? The lowest guy on the totem pole or the people on the board of directors who either already been or one day seek to be an executive? Aside from that, doesn’t the CEO have the power to move that the salary of the position be reduced in the best interest of the company’s bottom line? How many CEOs do this as well as move that all executive salaries be cut for the good of the company? You act as if a CEO is powerless…or a fool to refuse the “handout” given to him by the governing body, right?
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
4:09 pm
Devil…..
Would you go your company and tell them they are paying you too much? RIght!
Again, CEO’s do not set their own salaries. Unless they are a sole ownership and/or a private company.
saywhat?
August 15th, 2011
4:11 pm
UGA 1999- so what you are saying is that it is good for the few to make decisions that cause the rest of us to suffer, as long as things turn out o.k for the few. Great thinking!
Devil's Advocate
August 15th, 2011
4:11 pm
the Truth,
That’s a stretch. The Tea Party’s principles are sound. Now I won’t argue that there are several individuals who might fit your description but you can find them in way more groups than the Tea Party. Just another example of trying to cast that large net. It’s so much easier to point the finger at everyone in front of you rather than trying to pick out the enemies behind you isn’t it?
saywhat?
August 15th, 2011
4:13 pm
I believe UGA 1999 when he says the TeParty is not part of the KKK. After all, he would know. He has never seen the Tea party at the meetings he goes to.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will crush the heads of the perverted New World Order integrationist crowd and their devilish black minions
August 15th, 2011
4:13 pm
The integrationist African Americans leaders and their devilish black minions are relentless in attempting to make Americans feel guilty for some missteps of their great great grandfathers.
Amen?
parasite
August 15th, 2011
4:14 pm
tea party platform: xenophobia today, xenophobia tomorrow, xenophobia forever!
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
4:14 pm
say what? Did I say that? Please show me where.
Devil's Advocate
August 15th, 2011
4:15 pm
UGA 1999,
You just justified and validated anyone receiving a handout. Why would anyone receiving a handout refuse it? Did you get any of the Bush tax refunds? Did you keep it because it was originally your money (before being taken as tax) or did you return it to the government because it would have helped them keep cash in the reserves should we hit hard times as a country, like now?
UGA 1999
August 15th, 2011
4:15 pm
Saywhat? you continue to prove our point…..great work.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will crush the heads of the perverted New World Order integrationist crowd and their devilish black minions
August 15th, 2011
4:20 pm
Thirty years ago, the perverted integrationist African American leaders and their devilish black minions came to members of our society with the proposition of African Americans mating with Americans to produce mongrels for the purpose of diluting white unity.
We answered them in no uncertain terms i.e. N…. Please!
Amen?
Mudfoot
August 15th, 2011
4:22 pm
Aquagirl and Laurie were both correct. Keep widening the already-vast gap between the mega-wealthy and the rest of us and these violent outbreaks will occur more and more often as the poor become desparate and disconnected. Ignore this as solely thug behaviour all you want (and granted some are thugs) but it’s not going away, especially here in America where the (now endangered) middle class played such a large role in our becoming an economic powerhouse. Scary part is we here are armed a whole lot better than the Brits are
Ga Republicon
August 15th, 2011
5:02 pm
It’s obvious from the VERY INCOHERENT thoughts expressed by this UGA and the fool with the long “religious” name that these two individuals are quite mentally disturbed (they are probably the same person). One thing I can guarantee, when you look them in the face you see staring back at you TWO GLAZED WIDE EYES and person huffing and welling up uncontrollably because the VOICES VOICES THEY HEAR are telling them something is captivatingly funny and that they should be giggling. I am certain the “Lord and Savior…” guy is hard at work on his MANIFESTO as we speak.
Devilish Black Minion
August 15th, 2011
5:06 pm
When someone suggests we help the poor or ensure fair wages to the working the class, the republicans say, “get a job, you bum and shut up whining.” But when they want the poor and working class to send their sons and daughters to fight their wars, they say “united we stand, divided we fall and freedom ain’t free.” What a bunch of hypocrites. You make me sick.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will crush the heads of the perverted New World Order integrationist crowd and their devilish black minions
August 15th, 2011
6:02 pm
Take it from an independent. It is impossible to help a black integrationist poor person if they have been deceived by integrationist African American leaders and their devilish black minions. The doctrine of integration automatically precludes poor integrationist black people from helping themselves.
Just in case you didn’t get the word, the draft ended with the Vietnam War. Absolutely no one is asking poor integrationist African Americans to send their sons and daughters to fight wars. As of today, poor integrationists African Americans make their way to recruiting stations and volunteer to fight wars primarily for money.
Amen?
Jesse Jackson
August 15th, 2011
6:21 pm
We need more taxes so folks can stay sittin on their porches.
Uncle Rukus
August 15th, 2011
6:28 pm
I sho’ is glad the nice white man lets me join his army and get all that money. Yes suh, white man sho’is generous and smells so nice too.
Devilish Black Minion
August 15th, 2011
6:32 pm
Tell you what Uncle Rukus, you go give your life for a nation that hates you and I’ll sit on the front porch and sell weed. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of y’alls women folk while your gone defending freedom and all that.
David Wooten
August 15th, 2011
7:32 pm
“we ignore the danger signs at our own deep peril”
I’m not sure whom you mean by ‘we’, Mr. Barr, but, as an individual, I am not going to ignore the danger signs. Nor am I going to depend on government to do any other than ignore those signs until it is too late.
Antranella
August 15th, 2011
10:19 pm
A police officer who spoke recently at a meeting of our homeowners’ association stated his opinion that every household should have a firearm and that every adult should know how to use it.
Folks that is very, very good advice. When the stuff hits the fan here -and it will -it’ll be too late to find a gun and ammunition to defend yourself.
“Random Violence” a sign of things to come | The Barr Code – Slinking Toward Retirement
August 15th, 2011
10:20 pm
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E.Bronfeld
August 15th, 2011
10:28 pm
So, Bob, you despise the “nanny state”?? I am so confused. Congressman receive VIP Federal Health Insurance and the Federal Pension for life after only 2 years of serving in Congress. Is that not an entitlement paid for by the tax payers? Why are those entitlements not on the budget chopping block with Medicare and Social Security? And that is why the underclass is mad. The rich keep their entitlements and balance the budget on the backs of those that can least afford it.
buck@gon
August 16th, 2011
12:23 am
Enter your comments hereLivingstone the socialist: “[a] lot of these young people, they are criminals, yes, but there’s a disengagement – they feel no-one at the top of society, in government or City Hall, cares about them or speaks for them.”
Could be Bookman or Tucker the editorialist, Bob. What’s the difference? The world is beginning to melt down, Tucker is painting her toenails, and Jay is stopping people on the street telling them that Perry is a secessionist.
You are correct to speak about the evils of mob rule brought on by a welfare state manned by witless bureaucrats, but you work for a shameful rag of a paper that has no concept that anything in this regard is at all amiss.
buck@gon
August 16th, 2011
12:34 am
E. Bronfeld:
There are witless bureaucrats and there are nitwit bloggers. The latter you are; maybe the former too.
The first man who settled down and stored up some grain, meat, fish or tools to trade was the richest man in history. He had something. Everyone else was living at or near starvation–which is, by the way, the definition of a zero economy and complete poverty.
How in the world do you figure that the rich do anything to the poor, with regard to their backs? Aren’t the poor, the younger people who work for lower wages because they are inexperienced? Aren’t they the old, who are placed into the lower “quintiles” of IRS bureaucratease because they don’t work anymore?
When was the last time you saw a poor hungry person in this country? (and criminally neglected children fathered by derelict adults don’t count). The problem in this country isn’t hunger; it’s obesity.
The rich are getting richer by raking in the welfare dollars that go hand-to-mouth because of a political promise, made by an uninsightful political class, of whom it may be said, though they have never held a job or made a payroll, they have a keen understanding of how the rest of us should suffer confiscation so that they can do it for us.
Makes no sense, does it?
You want to go ahead with this “backs of the poor” crap, go ahead. It’s going to be a long way till next November, and I don’t think that dog will hunt much longer.
What would you have the poor do then? Vote for Obama or riot in the streets of New York, like they’re blowing up property in London?
I think people here are smarter; not to mention ARMED. If you were at all honest you would realize that Obama is hastening this reality, not abating it.
" Bail Out " ................... too big & to fail
August 16th, 2011
2:28 am
The Tea Party
seems to overlook the entitlement money going to the military industrial complex.
Producer
August 16th, 2011
7:51 am
Right on, Bob! It will come here faster than we think. When the moochers and tapeworms have their gov’t freebies cut, they’ll go on a rampage like nothing we’ve ever seen. Those bennies have kept their undeserving, worthless a$$es quiet for decades. That’s why no one will propose cutting them. The results of doing so will be violence and social unrest. Agree with the poster who said get a gun and know how to use it. We’ll all need it before too long.
Jack
August 16th, 2011
8:25 am
A mugged liberal often becomes a conservative.