NPR : First Fatality Reported in French Riots
NPR : First Fatality Reported in French Riots
It is very hard to sit back and not comment on this....
Part of me wants to say 'Vive La Revolution' - 'Let Them Eat Cake' - 'Down with the Bourgeoisie' etc....
But part of me understands the need for law and order too.
Sometimes I think the only way change is ever going to come in ANY major industrialised country is through blood shed and rioting because the powers that be just won't sit up and take notice to anything else. But then the Yoga teacher/pacifist in me knows that we should be trying to affect change in a non-violent way...
So the revolution will be televised - don't blink...
It is very hard to sit back and not comment on this....
Part of me wants to say 'Vive La Revolution' - 'Let Them Eat Cake' - 'Down with the Bourgeoisie' etc....
But part of me understands the need for law and order too.
Sometimes I think the only way change is ever going to come in ANY major industrialised country is through blood shed and rioting because the powers that be just won't sit up and take notice to anything else. But then the Yoga teacher/pacifist in me knows that we should be trying to affect change in a non-violent way...
So the revolution will be televised - don't blink...
posted by Colette at 10:01 AM
7 Comments:
IMO the French tend to me snooty assholes to all who are not French -- especially in their own country. All I can say is that they had it coming.
*GASP*
I can't believe you said this on MY blog...you're kidding right?????
Shame on you, Ken - for shame..
No, they don't act that way to all people and no they don't deserve the youth torching things like this.
It's wrong on a lot of levels - I agree things need to change but now they've cause the murder of an innnocent person and that's wron.
I'm sure you've read about the reasons as to why these riots are taking place?
People generally don't run around torching cars unless they're REALLY pissed -- as in pissed off because of discrimination and injustice being perpetrated against them. Who is doing the discriminating? The French. Why? Could it be -- at least in part -- because they are condescending and prejudice?
The death of that innocent person was unfortunate and probably an accident. Still, I applaud these kids for their spirit. Is torching cars less civilized than subtle bigotry? Why should one be tolerated and the other not? I'm sure that these kids decided enough is enough -- there was a final straw that broke the camel's back -- so that they decided to subvert the system by force. Sometimes shaking up the complacent fucks who hold the monopoly on power is the only way to effect change.
When we believe in something strongly enough -- such as, for instance, that the international scene is dominated by corporate assholes who are driven by the engine of greed and consumption -- we ought to resist it with all our might. This is what the New Left understood during the 60's. It is also what we in the U.S. have forgotten today. So long as we bitch about Bush on the one hand while planting our fat asses in our luxurious SUV's on the other, the neocons who run this country will always get their way. Do we feel that our presence in Iraq is wrong? We can protest about it all we want; all Buschco needs to do is turn a deaf ear.
Ken,
Accident my ass. These so-called youth aren't even French - they are immigrants who are unhappy living in France...my feeling is GO HOME. Look, everyone in some way is prejudiced we are all guilty of it. It's wrong I agree, but the answer is NOT violence it is NEVER violence. You will never get me to say that torching schools, cars, burning people alive is a good/just/righteous thing to do.
Youth is just that, too young. The youth in this country (the USA) can't even be bothered to vote - but they bitch - gee what's wrong with this picture.
We can affect change WITHOUT harming people and their possessions(again my heros Gandhi, Martin Luther King showed us how - do you think we are smart enough to learn those lessons???) There's no reason for violence - it's not msart - it only makes things worse. How about a general strike instead? Band together don't go to work, DON'T buy gas (gee where have you heard that suggestion before?) - does anyone do it, no! We're all a bunch of lazy friggin' idiots who expect change without doing anything to cause it to happen. Dumb.
I feel just as strongly as you do - but the French don't deserve this type of behaviour and law and order needs to be restored and those people breaking the law need to be punished. There is a better way to make how you feel known other than killing and violence.
they had it coming?
those criminals/immigrants should be deported right away.
"those criminals/immigrants should be deported right away."
I think it's easy for us to condemn these immigrants, because we are not in their shoes. From their perspective their "crimes" are justified. In their opinion they have a right to fair treatment which far outweighs the worth of the cars which they are torching.
I would say that the one fatality during these riots was definitely an accident. Otherwise more people would have been killed by now.
Sometimes drastic measures must be taken if our voices are to be heard. As I said before, you cannot treat people the way the French have been treating these immigrants without expecting some sort of reprisal sooner or later. It is in this way that the French had it coming.
Violence does not ALWAYS make things worse. In fact, violence always makes history. Human history is a history of violence, of revolutions. The very enforcement of civil liberties owes itself to violence: men and women of the past were willing to kill and to be killed in the name of freedom and equality -- if not for themselves, then for their posterity. All rights and liberties exist because they have been won.
Ghandi's strategy worked in the particular political situation then faced by India; it does not follow from this that his strategy may be applied to any and all situations with the same results. As for Martin Luther King, he would not even have had a voice if the right to free speech had not first been laid down by war.
Violence is an inextricable, ineradicable side to life and the human experience. I think something has gone wrong when peace is made into an absolute value, when the mere thought of violence raises alarms (even if it only involves the torching of cars).
VIOLENCE ALWAYS SUCKS KEN!
You have absolutely no right to applaud violence here on this blog. Period. I am sorry but the people of France don't deserve this - there are other ways of getting your message across - really there are...
There is never a good reason to destroy others' property or hurt innocent people, or burn down schools (in their own damned neighbourhoods no less - what a bunch of stupid fucktards) - I agree with Max - how dare you say they had it coming - not this - not Paris burning. And why don't you go tell the family of the woman that died how you feel - then you might expect some violence coming your way my dear and dare I say you'd have asked for it...
Again if you are going to immigrate to a country and that country does not treat you well you can leave. I am sick and tired of young people expecting shit to be just handed to them. Sure basic human rights should be guaranteed to all but sometimes they are not - the answer is not to riot or to burn down a city. How about some self-control, how about some self-respect? They are wrong for doing this in this way they will not win this way - they won't accomplish much other than to be deported this way. There is always another answer besides violence. Unless your life is in danger - and I am sorry I don't think just because they are 'disenfranchised' immigrant youths that being denied jobs etc. or experiencing 'bigotry' means their lives were on the line - I don't think they lynch people in Paris do they Ken???? They can always go elsewhere.
I can't condone this violence.
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