Chavs!

This is coolbert:

The recent events in London and various other English cities, the mobs setting buildings to the torch, looting, wanton and seemingly inane destruction - - reminiscent of the barbarians of olden times, at least NOW with a slight difference! Thanks to the AtlanticWire and the British magazine Economist.

"Remember when books were worthy of burning?"

Prospero the Economist critic - - "an expert in books and the power of the arts", commenting on the recent rioting and lawless destruction, arson, looting plaguing London and spreading to other English cities in the last few days.

The villains leaving bookstores left intact, not touched by the rioters! Readily apparent, all other businesses in the locale burned and looted - - except for bookstores!

Prospero invokes the name of Girolamo Savonarola and the torch-lit parades of right-wing German students" [Nazi]! Book burnings an indication of the mindless thug, the barbarian whose hate of civilized man is undiminished by any sort of rational thought! Wanton mayhem ensuing for the sake merely of wanton mayhem.

Rioters and looters, arsonists, referred to by the English term "chavs". Lawless youth for the most part, a total breakdown and disregard for law and order that displays a curious phenomenon.

"chavs" are said to be aggressive teenagers and young adults, of working class background, who repeatedly engage in anti-social behavior such as street drinking, drug abuse and rowdiness, or other forms of juvenile delinquency."

The rioters, the looters, the arsonists most interested in the taking of "bling". Gaudy objects to include jewelry of course and other items of some value, high-value jeans and assorted clothing, top-of-the-line cell phones, wide-screen plasma television sets, etc.

"bling - - Jamaican slang . . . The term 'Bling Bling' refers to the imaginary "sound" that is produced from light reflected by a diamond."

The barbarians are not only outside the city walls, they are inside the city, behaving in the age-old manner of the barbarian, loot, arson, at least not so much murder or rapine!

"It's a Pattern: London Rioters Are Leaving Bookstores Untouched"

"While the rioters in England this week have looted shops selling shoes, clothes, computers, and plasma televisions, they've curiously bypassed one particular piece of merchandise: books. The Economist observes that while rioters have a centuries-old history of book burning, 'books are losing out to high-end jeans and Apple-made gadgets'"

NOT so curious. These "chavs" are either illiterate or nearly so, and EVEN IF literate, books have no attraction for them. Books, the desire for learning,, is totally absent from the lives of the "chavs" and ALWAYS WILL BE!! With the "chav", bling counts now and forever and nothing more than bling is worth looting and burning for!

Contrast what has just recently transpired in London with the behavior of the Mongols - - 1258! Mongol barbarians destroying high culture and doing so with abandon and relish - - books, libraries, scholars, scientists in a purposeful manner being a MAIN TARGET! The sacking of Baghdad.

"the libraries of Baghdad, including the House of Wisdom, were not safe from the attacks of the Ilkhanate forces who totally destroyed the libraries, and used the invaluable books to make a passage across Tigris River"

"The Grand Library of Baghdad, containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed. Survivors said that the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed."

"Baghdad was one of the most brilliant intellectual centers in the world. The Mongol destruction of Baghdad was a psychological blow from which Islam never recovered."

"the intellectual flowering of Islam was snuffed out. Imagining the Athens of Pericles and Aristotle obliterated by a nuclear weapon begins to suggest the enormity of the blow."

The barbarian from over seven hundred years ago - - NOT ONLY "sacking" the city of Baghdad, but destroying the libraries, killing the scholars, doing so with an eagerness and relish!! "One of the most brilliant intellectual centers in the world" more or less obliterated! Indeed, the population of the area not recovering until the past century! That man who survived and witnessed the "sacking" waiting fifty years to chronicle the devastation, so wide-spread was the destruction, and painful to remember what was and what had been compared to what was left!!

The "chavs" of course don't burn the books and the bookstores now or continue their evil deeds on such as level as the Mongol of 1258, NOT having the physical wherewithal to do so - - BUT WAIT TILL NEXT TIME!!

coolbert.