Riots - good or bad?

[AJ sheffield]

take no notice of this person and their posts. It would appear to me that you are acting like a provocateur.

 

every post that you write relates to anger bitterness or violence.

 

stop trying to stir peoples emotions

 

Keep taking the meds

[hard2miss]

take no notice of this person and their posts. It would appear to me that you are acting like a provocateur.

 

every post that you write relates to anger bitterness or violence.

 

stop trying to stir peoples emotions

What makes you say that ?

 

Here is some more posts to read.

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=686992

 

The person is a fool looking for attention. sad .

[AJ sheffield]

The problem is while violence is rarely condonable, I have very, very few doubts that had the student's protests been 100% peaceful the sad fact is that they would have been largely ignored by the media.

 

It is certainly a sure fire way of getting some publicity!

 

But its bad publicity, almost everyone I know is disgusted by it.

[Wildcat]

But its bad publicity, almost everyone I know is disgusted by it.

 

Better perhaps than no publicity.

 

Whilst the media blanks out peaceful protests, and only shows us the violent ones, it leaves those looking for role models and publicity little alternative.

[MadnBad]

Does anyone remember the anti iraq war protest?, no thought not! a million people on the street and were ignored.

But 25000 students protest about something far more insignificant and yet the history books will have more than just a few words to say about it, and they certainly weren't ignored.

That's the problem with violent protest the struggle has to be worth the gain, i can't say i think this one was in fact what some of the protesters did makes me boil with rage but at least they were heard no matter how futile it really was.

[Guest]

Riots are sometimes successful when peaceful methods have failed as Harleyman points out regarding Thatcher's poll tax.

Shouldn't be necessary but, unfortunately, they sometimes are.

[Anna B]

Rioting can never be 'good' however sometimes it seems to be the last and only resort left in order to forcefully put your point across, and in some cases it can achieve the desired result.

 

In a country that is well governed, with the full concensus of the people it should never happen, therefore the government should look to its own behaviour and its lack of respect for the wishes of people it purports to represent.

 

In other words it gets the reaction it deserves.

[andygardener]

Rioting can never be 'good' however sometimes it seems to be the last and only resort left in order to forcefully put your point across, and in some cases it can achieve the desired result.

 

In a country that is well governed, with the full concensus of the people it should never happen, therefore the government should look to its own behaviour and its lack of respect for the wishes of people it purports to represent.

 

In other words it gets the reaction it deserves.

 

I don't remember the people being out on the streets in the cause of "we have a massive deficit left by the labourites and the most important thing is to increase that by giving more money to the educated middle classes!"

[Darth Vader]

This was Great Britain - soon to be a backward banana republic.

 

It became one when we started segregating students at a polling station, and denying people their right to vote up and down the country at the last General Election, and then offered money (!) to those who were denied their vote!!

[purdyamos]

I hate violence and won't condone its use, but what I think makes the ultimate difference is the perception of who is actually protesting. What made the Poll Tax riots different, and the Iraq war demo (yes, MadnBad people do remember it even though it didn't stop the war), was that it was ordinary people who felt strongly enough to get out and try and make their voices heard, those who never usually took part in these things.

 

It is easy to dismiss those anarchistic vandals cast aside as 'rent a mob', who'd be agitating and stirring up trouble at almost any time no matter what the cause. It's something else when those who are never usually connected with protest feel compelled to act. Neda Soltan in Iran, for instance, struck a chord precisely because she wasn't political, but she and others got to a point where they simply couldn't take it anymore. It's when the ordinary people start sabre rattling and sacrifing themselves to a cause that a protest really starts to stand for something and reflects a distinct change in national mood.

 

Students have been rather apathetic for years, I'm not at all surprised they're angry now though. Everything they've been brought up to believe about the world has been turned on its head. *Reality* or not, they have been betrayed by the generations who were supposed to protect their future. For many, it will be their first real taste of betrayal. This is only a beginning of the general anger that should be directed at the true culprits, rather than the sordid and pernicious campaign of scapegoating those least responsible, for instance the chronically ill: did anyone actually notice the bombshell about the assault on the disabled that was leaked out while all this has been going on today? Thought not. Who'll get angry about that? No-one except perhaps those who have been given license to attack the easiest targets.

 

Whichever way you look at it, people have been betrayed by the establishment status quo, and any attempt to sneer people into complying with the continuance of that status quo without healthily expressing their underlying anger in some form will lead to even worse at a later stage.

 

Wait till it starts affecting you directly. Who will you unleash your anger on? What form will it take? Who will you blame? The true culprits, or the designated scapegoats? Whether it's in terms of civil disobedience, scorn and disgust, or violence, at heart it's that categorical difference that really matters. Attack the guilty, or the vulnerable? I'd prefer the non-violent option, but get your targets right. Things may well get ugly, but get your targets right.