By Umar Waqar,“Tre is an up an' coming member of the 'Outlawz', one of Grand Central City's biggest gangs. Crime Life: Gang Wars is all about you're going to help Tre become top dog, all the while protecting his turf from Grand Central's most notorious big-city crooks.You'll be glad to know that the action is primarily fighting. Each battle feels like a make or break opportunity -you'll make your name, or they'll break your face is basically what we're saying here. Your main aim is to defend your crew from the violence and treachery that permeates society”.
These are words of advertisement run by Konami Games (UK), to attract young boys and girls to buy the video game related to Gang Wars. In the modern Bazaar of lust and hunger for a quick buck, the Game and Film industry has crossed all limits of luring in the youth to the destructive gang culture.
While going through the videos of looting spree in London and scenes of masquerading gangs rampaging through one of the most civilised metropolises in the word, I was trying to answer one big question, what has gone wrong with the youth of the West?
One could clearly see five major trends in the London Riots. One ,the Gang behaviour, two, the universality of rowdiness(there were all kinds of gangs, white skin heads, blacks, asians, latinos, boys and girls),three, feeling of disenfranchisement and apathy from society, four frustration with the symbols of capitalism and five directionlessness.
While leaving the explanation of these trends to be evaluated by worthy readers, I would make a humble effort to find the root causes of these trends and also project the fallout of London Looting Spree on Europe and the rest of the world. We will have to go back in history(about two hundred years) when the foundation was being laid for the so called great experiment in human history. Materialism was taking its final shape and the west was challenging the God Almighty and everything associated with religion to prove that the man had found the ultimate recipe for happiness. The phrase Life ,Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness enshrined in US Declaration of Independence became the end of everything, from economic exploitation of weaker societies to the phenomenon of individualism and from the destructive World Wars of 20th centuries to the creation of Economic Hitmen of present times.
Since religion’s moorings rested on pillars of family system, love of God, selfless social service and the clergy, the new mantra of pursuit of happiness warranted a systematic destruction of each of these pillars. Through the themes of women emancipation, individual lebensraum, winner takes it all, defamation of clergy and population control, every pillar of religiosity was systematically attacked and raised to ground within a span of a century. The atomization of family system destroyed the basic brick on which societies and civilizations build their foundations. Current inverted demographic trends have pushed the west (including Japan) across the Rubicon of impotency, where a recovery seems impossible. Pat Buchannan declared this trend as The Death of the West. Individualism was pushed beyond limits, not realizing that human being is basically a social animal who seeks and longs for association; no wonder the runaway kid from a torn family system tried to build a gang culture to fulfill the thirst of association, the father was replaced by the God-father or the gang leader. Individualism also created serious psychological problems, when the teen aged boy found out that his divorced mother was to live with her nth boyfriend and the boy could not bring in the house his own girl friend as the house did not have enough space to accommodate them all. The term My Space was born out of necessity, everyone had to find his libensraum, and this proved to be the end of family system.
Clergy(who happened to be the flag bearer of religion) was the next target, religious figures were mocked, insulted and restricted to the confines of the Church.TV and Hollywood played the old Jewish game of attacking religion, even the the personality of prophets and saints of Christianity were not spared; movies like Da Vinci Code were a direct attack on the sublime and honored Prophet Jesus Christ(peace be upon Him),unfortunately such ugly ventures were allowed by the Christians in the heart of the biggest custodian of the faith, the United States. The Jewish domination of Christian clergy was so complete that few voices raised against these ugly ventures were silenced by the media in the name of freedom of expression.
On the other hand the monster of capitalism was unleashed on the innocent people of the west and east. John Perkins’, Confessions of an Economic Hitman gives a bone chilling account of exploits of capitalism, as per John Perkins, “Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly-paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”
The winner takes it all philosophy of the capitalism gave the smart, intelligent and crook individuals, corporations and governments the right to rob their brother human beings groups and countries and declared it morally correct in achieving the golden end, the pursuit of happiness.No wonder the Bernie Maddofs, George Sorros, Rupert Murdochs and Double Shahs played havoc with fortunes of simple(but greedy) people and governments. Even the Governments played with public money and indebted their exchequers with trillions of dollars of debt, that is why the biggest economy of US and Europe has been found to be so hollow from inside and awaits another great depression. The youth demoralized by loss of jobs, broken family system, fear of immigrants(a corollary of poor demography),lack of faith in religion and reeling under exploits of capitalism(where you own nothing but a credit card for rest of your life),was left with no choice but to come out and say it loudly, we are fed up with this God forsaken system!
To summarize, the current turmoil in Europe is the beginning of the end of exploitative system of capitalism and everything associated with it. Its fallout could lead to civil wars and wars of hate in the West. Since the global economy is linked with this monstrous system and had feet of clay, its fall is likely to generate a tsunami of catastrophic events that could lead to tragedies unfathomable by the mankind. May be Dr Iqbal’s prophesy is about to become true who commented on the moral degeneration of the west (in 1906) as;
O the dwellers of the west, God’s land is not a shop of business
The Glitter of everything you consider Gold will prove to be false
Your creed will commit suicide with its own dagger
For a nest built on delicate branches will not last longer.
Umar Waqar:
Umar Waqar is a young and upcoming freelance journalist who has been regularly writing on contemporary issues. He is trying to specialize in demographics, western culture, Middle East, India and development of young leadership in Pakistan. Has attended National Media Workshop at National Defence University Islamabad and seeks to become a professional journalist and true Pakistani.
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/08/london-riots-and-its-roots/
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