To The Liberals
The riots haven’t made me particularly angry for some reason, but what has been making me angry is hearing some of the comments bandied about in response to the riots. Comments which seek to excuse the behaviour of the ‘rioters’ (read looters).
Comments such as; they are bored, they are desperate, they have a ‘bad life’ and ‘nothing to look forward to’. Basically saying that due to their terrible lives, they feel angry, they feel desperate and as such they feel the need to TAKE the very things that are lacking in their lives.
For goodness sake ..”nothing to look forward to?”.
Just because they don’t have a job and certain material ‘things’ this means their life is in tatters and they need to act out over it? Very few people in this country are starving or homeless … most of these yoof have homes, they have food, they even have nice clothes so what the hell is their problem exactly? What exactly is so very terrible about THEIR LIFE?
WHY can’t they be happy with their life? Because society told them to be unhappy because they don’t have a flatscreen, or a car, or a holiday abroad? I have none of those things and am perfectly happy!
Why don’t they go out and help those who suffer GENUINE misfortune in their life, and look forward to doing some good? Why don’t they find meaning and richness in life through helping others instead of spending their life thinking about things they don’t have that they actually don’t NEED and getting all pointlessly angry about it.
Life is about people not money. And when you have somewhere to live, food on your plate, and clothes on your back you have very little cause for real complaint. Life is no richer with a flat screen tv, life is no richer with each passing holiday in the sun, and life is no richer by being a car owner.
Owning these things won’t make you feel any less bored, or life any less pointless. Find meaning elsewhere instead of stealing what you do not have and no not need.
I see an awful lot of well fed people in those riot photos.
6 Responses to “To The Liberals”
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As a teen I was told I would never work as there was a recession on. I have never not worked. Yes I have a flat screen tv, I worked and saved solidly for 4 months to buy it. It’s mine and I earned it. Stealing isn’t earning and looting isn’t rioting, it’s theft on the back of someone else’s grievance.
I have worked through two recessions, however if I had found myself unable to find work, but fed and clothed still, I would certainly not be looting the things I could not afford to buy myself.
I consider myself a liberal and you cannot hide the underlying problem. When you spend millions every day convincing people that they must have whatever new shiny thing is being sold and tempt them with lines like “Because I’m worth it” and you celebrate celebrity, bling, the Times Rich List and everything to do with money don’t be surprised when people feel that they have no way of accessing it when things like the Educational Maintenance Allowance are cut, grants to higher education are cut and everything that makes life slightly bearable is cut, I can actually understand the temptation to do this as there is nothing at all to lose. Their attitude is the areas they live in are shit so why not burn them down. Hopefully something better will come out of it will be the thought, but you know what? It won’t.
It is of course privately owned companies that spend millions convincing people they NEED an abundance of material possessions rather than the government.
However the government fails to counteract the effect of this in any way, or recognise that it is building discontent among certain members of society.
This still isn’t an excuse and I don’t like the way some people imply that that it should be. It’s a reason (a highly twisted and wrong reason), not an excuse.
I live in the same society as the rioters, as do many others, and non of us riot and loot to acquire the material possessions we do not have just because someone else has them and we feel it’s our right to have them also.
I think we need to work not so much on people having better access to more money, but instead changing their mindset about how much they really need or want the money.
Reason being that at the end of the day not everyone cannot be rich, and it’s important for those who are not, to be happy regardless. This is what needs changing, because there will always be people who have more than you do.
actually amanda…recession a very bad time for all of us…so we just need to not loosing our patience and just cooperate with the present conditions
Yes, instead of making conditions even worse for ourselves. Some people just don’t understand how not to self sabotage.