Monday, August 15, 2011

An Open Letter to Those Who Condemn Looting

I am blessed with friends who send me things to read I might not otherwise see..


 This time it's the author of Socialism and/or Barbarism and a piece on the rioting in London.  My cognitive dissonance is screaming like a bad clutch.  His streets are not mine.  His views are not mine.  His anger is foreign to me.  But I can choose to attempt to look at his community from his vantage point.  I may not understand how it is, but perhaps I can feel how it is.  And in that alien disjoint place I might sense the measure of the differences between us.

2 comments:

  1. Abusive people are always full of apologies or explanations. It does not matter because they have cast their lot. It is what they do that has defined them.

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  2. Rioting, looting, and other forms of social "loss of control" have their roots in the material conditions of their society. They have their psychological factors and their sociological factors, environmental and economic factors too. It isn't an issue of corrupted "human nature" or even merely poor choices. Explaining social phenomenon is not the same as "excusing" them; on the contrary, it helps to address the events. The security industry is uniquely positioned to take part in society's choices and help create an environment where these cataclysmic losses of control are prevented - namely by helping create a humane environment.

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