Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets

[katty]

more: http://counterpunch.org/harvey08122011.html

Slash and Burn as the New Normal
Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets
By DAVID HARVEY

"Nihilistic and feral teenagers" the Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.

The word "feral" pulled me up short. It reminded me of how the communards in Paris in 1871 were depicted as wild animals, as hyenas, that deserved to be (and often were) summarily executed in the name of the sanctity of private property, morality, religion, and the family. But then the word conjured up another association: Tony Blair attacking the "feral media," having for so long been comfortably lodged in the left pocket of Rupert Murdoch only later to be substituted as Murdoch reached into his right pocket to pluck out David Cameron.

[phantom power]

1. The establishment is forced to blame the victim, and dehumanize them.

The alternative is unacceptable to them -- that they are responsible.

[fasttense]

2. The rioters and looters are merely imitating the corporate aristocracy and political leaders.

But David Harvey says it much better:

"But my guess is that every street rioter knows exactly what I mean. They are only doing what everyone else is doing, though in a different way – more blatently and visibly in the streets. Thatcherism unchained the feral instincts of capitalism (the "animal spirits" of the entreprenuer they coyly named it) and nothing has transpired to curb them since. Slash and burn is now openly the motto of the ruling classes pretty much everywhere."

So, the working class has a slash and burn program of their own, surprise, surprise, surprise.

[katty]

3. sociopath-etic behavior fr the top...trickle down effect