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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Capitalism and You: Riots and Public Unrest

Its Saturday August 13th and the world is burning up in the FLAMES OF UNREST!!!! ....or so the media made us think with the market tumbling and a flurry of rioting going on in London.

After watching the coverage provided by various news agencies over the past few days, I was able to get a glimpse at how these people make their money and sell their papers, I mean we all have to put food on the table and catching your attention does just that when it comes to the world, you and the potential paper your going to pick up to read about it.

I was also given the chance to see how one sided our news coverage can really be. I mean, do not get me wrong, there is always two sides to each story, but what I often referred to as news was becoming pictures on the television showing groups of young white men and visible minorities tagged as Anarchists and thugs vandalizing the streets. I understand that of the many riots that occurred there were individuals out for the chance to cause some major damage, but I found myself lacking in answers as to why the riots had begun or why they had grown so large.

Watching the CBC, I was able to get a few points that attempted to explain this. Upon hearing that the government gave the army and about 16,000 police officers the chance to walk the streets, I just thought in my head...okay, that seems like a good solution to the effects of the rioting and the symptoms of the problem, but how will that fix the root cause to all of this public unrest. There were even examples made referring the Vancouver riots that occurred following the Canucks loss and some attempt was made to try and understand the mob mentality for both examples.

I look at the riots and the uncertainty in the world with the markets and I see many connections that could very well link both issues. People are struggling at the moment, income is down and falling in many cases for the middle class and lower class, while the cost of living continues to grow with the gap between the rich and the poor. The CBC characterized this as the gap between the have and have nots, but I find this title offensive. Why should someone who does not possess a large sum of money in their bank be considered a have not, especially in a system where the rich are given many advantages over the poor.

Capitalism requires you to spend in order for it to survive, we are taught since birth to spend and work for money, to treat money as the most all and foundation of our lives. It comes as no surprise to me when I see youth causing trouble in response to the greatest Capitalist a country has....the government.

What made this rioting even more special was the method of communication that was utilized...facebook, twitter and bbm. What we have witnessed here people is the further evolution of our society and the lack of modernity of our governments. Maybe it is time that our government embraces the internet in a fashion more catered to the youth and younger class of people. We see the internet as a free range zone where ideas and beliefs (both good and bad) can exist free of censorship, why can we not see our governments taking advantage of this amazing source to reach out to us in a more friendlier manner? All I saw on the news was an attempt to censor the use of social networking as a solution to the riots, when this A) defies natural human rights and B) would only incite more violence.

How do you feel about our current state of affairs? I know the world has always had rough patches and on a daily basis appears near the brink of disaster, but I feel there is always hope and guidance with proper direction and education. Do you feel our government has some catching up to do in order to not only better serve us, but conduct it's business?

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