Thorn

There is a difference between political protest and anarchic looting and arson. You don't seem to appreciate that different kinds of civil unrest call for different kinds of responses. And frankly, the idea these anarchic idiots would regroup and start a revolution is so patently ludicrous that I wonder how you weren't embarrassed making the suggestion. What would be their chant? We demand free Nikes?

In point of fact, all societies are based upon the rule of force. And there are no limits to that force. The state will use whatever level of force is required to enforce its orders. It cannot tolerate refusal, and won't. So resistance to the state will always bring about harsher and harsher force until your resistance is overcome. The more you resist, the more force will be applied. This is so for any violation of the rules, however mild, for simply refusing to obey is itself a crime. There is a woman in Toronto who has spent most of the last ten years in prison. Her crime consists of walking up and down on a sidewalk outside an abortion clinic for brief periods of time. This is against the rules, and the state must enforce its rules. Since she made no physical resistance, she was simply imprisoned, but any physical resistance is always met by greater application of force by the state. All societies are based upon this. Note that I am not attempting to divert this discussion onto abortion (please God) but merely pointing out that the state, whether in Canada or elsewhere, might use restraint, but ultimately they will do whatever they have to do to get you to desist from breaking the law. Now I am not suggesting that shooting rioters ought to be the first response by any means. However, the only thing which brings this sort of anarchic violence to a stop is the greater application of violence. The more restraint you show, the more the violence grows and spreads. I recall during the Rodney King riots, which grew and spread once again because of restraint and 'sensitivity' on the part of the authorities that when similar rioting began in San Fransisco the SFPD went after the rioters with vengeance. It was a bloody night, which produced well over a thousand arrests. but that was the end of it. LA's violence continued until the National Guard was finally brought in. Nothing stops mobs but violence, and you use however much violence you need to get the job done.

You appear to live in a fantasyland where human behaviour is based on cultural rules with no similarity to ours. I can't recall ever seeing a mob fired on by police or the military which didn't break and run. Ever. In any part of the world. Note, before you get even more tiresome and come up with a case where one or two desperate cops shot into a huge mob all around them and were killed that I'm speaking of fire by a disciplined body of troops or police in unison. .Most mobs have no controlling cadre. Are you referencing some sort of activists political handbook or other? These mobs were anarchic in nature and without leaders. Such groups will always continue and grow until hammered by the authorities.

I've quickly come to realize that one can determine the intelligence of any given post here by the number of emoticons used by its poster.

Such a desperately inane reply. I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw

On the contrary, I believe my description of the likely mentality of the mob is considerably closer to reality than your tearful sympathy for them as poor, misunderstood souls who are the victims of capitalist cruelty.

Well, if it's coming from you it certainly can't be described as valuable...

On the contrary, it works quite well. The only times it ever fails to work are when the police/military join in with the looters due to lack of discipline or lack of loyalty to the governing structure. Mobs don't operate on any moral structure, but this kind of mob operates out of an individual sense of self-interest which sees free loot and no real threat of punishment. Give them a very real threat of very deadly punishment and they will melt away and get back to their video games and televisions. You actually believe anything you've come up with thus far would be accurately described as 'complex'??! Wow.

Which happened when, exactly? Having followed events rather closely I don't recall reading of a single instance of that. Your frantic efforts at coming up with excuses for rioting and arson are simply growing more and more tedious.

Having empathy and sympathy for people being robbed, beaten and burned out, as I do, is not quite the same thing as having empathy and sympathy for those who rob and beat and burn others homes, as you do.

Well, certainly the ACCUSATION of my cowardice is completely detached from anything remotely resembling the topic at hand, or any reasonably coherent level of intelligent discussion on your part.

Something from this generation would be nice. Canada, its people, and its government have changed an awful lot since immigration was liberalized in the late sixties. So I just don't buy that the government is going to jump to placate xenophobia. If they'd been willing to do that we wouldn't have had thirty years non-stop of high immigration.

Canadians will do any job. Canadians will lick toilets clean for a living provided the job is properly compensated. Bringing in a mass of immigrants lowers the remuneration of certain types of jobs to the point where only the desperate, ie, newcomers without skills or contacts, will take them.

Seems to me the Chinese don't have a problem with tourism and managed the Olympics quite well. Public order needs to be maintained, regardless of cost. If shooting rioters and looters on sight is the cost, then so be it. You have a disturbing amount of sympathy for violent, thieving arsonists and a bizarre sense of contempt for anyone who wishes to maintain order.

Not a chance. I think people who were poor appreciate money and the freedom it buys a hell of a lot more than those who were born to wealth. I'm not criticizing people for being born to wealth, merely pointing out facts.

It means you either don't know what poverty is or you don't know anything about the early lives of any of those three men, for none of them rose from poverty.

Really? All of it? It seems to me many of them don't really earn their money so much as inherit it from those who inherited it. And given the amount of state money poured into subsidies and grants to business, and the way clever people learn to exploit or fudge the rules I'd also argue some of it was stolen, too.

If I am being 'cowardly' is it your contention your behaviour is 'brave'?

I like my bubble. But I wasn't born in it. I came from those neighbourhoods. I know people in them. I have relatives in them. I know perfectly well what sort of mentality leads to looting and destroying things, and none of it is ideologically based. Nor does it arise from misery and poverty and hopelessness. It comes from a sense of jaded, pseudo sophistication, mostly, a feeling that the conventional life of work and raising a family is simply too BORING, and a dislike of schedules and responsibilities. It is people who have little connection or empathy to others, who are too selfish and narcissistic and too lacking in drive or ambition to make anything of their lives. Such people feel contempt for 'normal' people and normal lifestyles, and a sense of superiority which is mixed with indignation sometimes bordering on anger that their wants are not being met -- despite no work on their part to obtain the means to meet those wants. I don't feel sorry for such people. I feel sorry that my taxes go to supporting them when I get nothing back I want to put those people on chain gangs until they decide they'd rather do something else to feed themselves.

The mere fact that dishonesty is openly discussed and condemned is an indication that it is aberrant, whereas in your country it is so routine and commonplace no one would even think to write anything about it. And since every member of your governments, federal, state or local, is corrupt, it isn't like they're going to do anything about it either.

It is the main part. Regardless of the rise or fall of the currency being used, raw materials are worth the same the world over. It does not cost the Mexicans any less to buy a ton of iron ore than it costs someone in Ontario. The low Mexican peso - presuming it is low -- simply means that labour is cheaper there, and everything the company has to pay in terms of labour, and for services and goods which include a labour cost, will be cheaper than in Canada.

I'm not certain if your nation is the most corrupt on Earth, if it's people are the most dishonest and the most willing to lie, cheat and steal. There may be other nations with a more corrupt people I have not yet encountered. But certainly yours is right up there, and nothing whatever that any Chinese organization says can be taken as truthful since no Chinese organization places any value on truth, honesty or integrity.

Is this an example of the quality of the Chinese educational system? Your English is appalling and well below the minimal state of literacy needed for you to even begin to communicate your message with any degree of coherence. You need to stop posting here until you learn how to write in the English language.

It's evident you don't.

Odd how the BBC had an interview with a prominent member of the Black community this morning who made no effort to deny that his community was disproportionately involved. And I've certainly seen numerous people with darker skins on the many videos of the rioting. These riots took place in areas which were heavily ethnic. It would be a matter of course that a lot of them would be ethnics.