uk riots 1984 vs. clockwork orange

.. what do ...

  .. each have ...

    .. in common?

A: Dystopian societies largely caused by oppressive governments[1,2].

-=*=-

Yes, rioting = berserking; smash and grabbing, etc. are criminal.

Yes, outrageous; hear the calls for 'tough measures,' and the cynical politicians' responses, and their (weak) excuses.

But #1: Rioting = berserking; smash and grabbing, etc. are *exactly* what the US, UK, Aus etc. did to Iraq, are now doing to Libya.

Sauce for the goose.

But #2: I read a comment:

  « ... The majority of people I have talked to in the streets (shopkeepers, small businessowners, waiters and cab drivers) point unequivocally to the causes being the rioters' overinflated sense of entitlement mixed with a complete lack of respect for others and a jeering contempt for authority, especially the police, who have been crippled and neutered by political correctness and a fear of offending the scores of competing minority groups.» 

IMHO: Too much, too slick; obviously a propagandist/pro-oppression apologist-troll at 'work.'

Whatever the rioters' motives are, the riots themselves are proof of the UK government's total failure.

A long time ago, possibly before Thatcher but definitely since and including her, governments - plural, at least the regimes in US, UK, Aus and others, all regimes which ape the hideous, erring neoliberal ideology, such governments *chose* to oppose the people's interests, and things will only get worse until these tyrants are removed.

A proper "of, by, for the people etc." democracy requires at least these three; 1) an informed & engaged electorate, 2) full & free info-flows, and 3) a wide range of honest candidates who, if/when elected, represent the electorate by implementing the will of the majority, protecting any minorities. Our, i.e. US, UK, Aus and other such 'pretend democracy' rogue-regimes, fail all three. Deliberately dumbed-down citizens, distracted by trivia & disinformation on TV, corrupt & venal MSM (did anyone mention Murdoch?), and most representatives sell-out to the highest bidder, usually corporations but worst-case, the "Israel Lobby."

It gets worse. The 'democratic covenant' has been and is being deliberately violated; under such circumstances any laws a corrupt regime attempts to promulgate are invalid. Here, consider the 'war on drugs.' What any citizen chooses to imbibe in privacy is none of any 3rd party's business, consumption of drugs can only harm the user (see Abbott's support of 'big tobacco'), and there are plenty of laws against any 'drug-taker' side effects - just as there are plenty of laws against rioting.

It has already been alleged elsewhere, that the rioting is a result of cutting social spending; that's only a minor, if true, part.

It is the job of governments to arrange and run society, it's what they are there for.

Repeat: Whatever the rioters' motives are, the riots themselves are proof of the UK government's total failure - to do what they are there for; and the riots are just the merest sampling of the unhappy populace (those not dozing, sated on take-out/home-delivered pizza, before their flickering flat/wide TVs, that is.)

Since TINA-Thatcher at least, governments have worked for and on behalf of those with the most $s, namely the rich and the corporations (big end of town), and have, wherever possible, cut spending, reduced services both societal (medical, welfare, education) & infrastructure (privatisations), so much so that governments have become - made themselves - the public's enemy.

Governments know all about this, because they are doing it all on purpose. It also explains why the police = the enforcers, are being conspicuously militarised.

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, various forms of active and passive coercion. [wiki]

[2] oppress v. 1 keep in subservience. 2 govern or treat cruelly. 3 weigh down (with cares or unhappiness).  oppression n. oppressor n. [Latin: related to *press1] [POD.]