The Garage
August 11, 2011 AUTHOR: zachary CATEGORIES: Real World Tags:

The Culture Clashes

A major world defining event in Palomar City is the Culture Clashes. These aren’t simply religious or ethnic clashes, they are attacks on lifestyle, social position and more often than not the rioters are bound more by a common enemy than a common understanding. This year we’ve seen the Arab Spring, we are on year 10 of the US occupation of many cities around the globe and the London Riots.

These are all the foundation on which the Culture Clashes are born. Here’s a great op-ed piece from the New York Times by RICHARD SENNETT and SASKIA SASSEN.

“The American right today is obsessed with cutting government spending. In many ways, Mr. Cameron’s austerity program is the Tea Party’s dream come true. But Britain is now grappling with the consequences of those cuts, which have led to the neglect and exclusion of many vulnerable, disaffected young people who are acting out violently and irresponsibly — driven by rage rather than an explicit political agenda. “

[update 08.13.11]

And then the counterpoint in this article on Spiked by Brendan O’Neill.

“The political context is not the cuts agenda or racist policing – it is the welfare state, which, it is now clear, has nurtured a new generation that has absolutely no sense of community spirit or social solidarity. What we have on the streets of London and elsewhere are welfare-state mobs. The youth who are ‘rising up’ – actually they are simply shattering their own communities – represent a generation that has been more suckled by the state than any generation before it.”

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This background image is concept art for District 99, aka Rivertown. The artwork was done by Sutu, who created the award-winning web series NAWLZ.

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