Nikes....riots...police...SWAT helicopters.

Subject: Nikes....riots...police...SWAT helicopters. Fri Feb 24, 2012 6:10 pm

Nikes......riots.....100 police in riot gear....SWAT helicopters...

Crap. If these "people" will riot over a pathetic pair of shoes (that they were probably planning to steal anyway, since I doubt they could afford them), what will their reaction be when the fuel supplies and food run out in this country? When the government goes bankrupt?

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view/20120224riot_cops_break_up_nike_shoe_crowd_at_orlando_mall/srvc=home&position=recent

Yes, it's frightening. Were another Great Depression to strike this country it would be a bloodbath from sea to shining sea. America in 2012 is a different animal from America in 1932.

It's not confined to the USA. I've been doing a fair amount of travelling in the UK recently and it’s clear that many people no longer have faith in government's ability, or worse, willingness, to protect them.

That's a new development in Britain, where working people are generally law abiding even when they think the law's an ass. However, it's not so surprising: we all saw the pictures of policemen standing by while rioters destroyed whole areas of London. That, and the EU's complete inability to get to grips with the Euro's inherent instability, is genuinely unsettling people.

Upshot is that ordinary people are stocking up on tinned foods and bottled water, armour-plating their houses, and withdrawing large amounts of money from the banks, where interest rates are singularly failing to keep pace with inflation. I haven't seen this level of paranoia since I was a kid in the 1970s and a neighbours started to build a nuclear bunker in his back garden.

I wish I could say they were wrong.

Ambleringetorix,

As bad as things are in the US, I fear the situation in Britian is considerably more dire. If I were living over there and had the ability to get out, I would. That said, if it were within my capacity to up sticks and move to Switzerland, I'd probably do that too. I no longer have faith in my country.

I don't get the need for $100-$200 shoes, any shoes, dress or athletic.

I bought a $20 pair of no name tennis/walking/athletic shoes or whatever you call them now a couple of years ago and they lasted me 2 years before they started coming apart.

I wore them almost every day too.

I have a pair of dress shoes I got from Super Target for $30 and they have that natural finish: always look like you just shined them.

They are not made in Italy or anything but I had them for 3 years now and they still look new.

Everytime I wear them, people look at them and say things like: your shoes are really shiny or are those Gucci?

j7wild wrote:

I don't get the need for $100-$200 shoes, any shoes, dress or athletic.

Not to mention that anybody caught wearing these shoes automatically becomes a target for armed robbery and/or murder. The shoes actually look quite good.

This is just so predictable. And while it's tempting to blame Nike for the mass chaos and violence that surrounds the release of every "limited" shoe brand they put out, no one says you have to act like an animal and riot when they go on sale.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Upshot is that ordinary people are stocking up on tinned foods and bottled water, armour-plating their houses, and withdrawing large amounts of money from the banks, where interest rates are singularly failing to keep pace with inflation.

Really? I live in Britain and don't know anyone who's doing those things (although I don't dispute your point about interest rates).

Consumerism (rabble rabble).

j7wild wrote:

I don't get the need for $100-$200 shoes, any shoes, dress or athletic.

Well, you seem to like simple, modest things as far as shoes are concerned. Many of mine go into the higher bracket. And then I have something simple like a £27.99 pair of platform shoes with open toe cleavage. Then again, just walking around barefeet makes Mr. Dog hard so go figure.... Like a Star @ heaven

As far as people rioting for shoes go, just tear-gas these bastards to hell, they are nothing but fucking baboons in society. I'd be enraged if a I owned a NIKE store and it became a target for these opportunistic morons.

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

j7wild wrote:

I don't get the need for $100-$200 shoes, any shoes, dress or athletic.

Well, you seem to like simple, modest things as far as shoes are concerned.

I, too, like simple, modest things, as far as your ass is concerned.

Agent Posts: 2338 Member Since: 2011-08-22

This kind of mad consumerism isn't terribly new.

When I'm being knifed or robbed I hope my reaction isn't 'This kind of mad consumerism isn't terribly new.'

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Ambleringetorix,

As bad as things are in the US, I fear the situation in Britian is considerably more dire. If I were living over there and had the ability to get out, I would. That said, if it were within my capacity to up sticks and move to Switzerland, I'd probably do that too. I no longer have faith in my country.

Switzerland? Shocked

I'm more worried about the European political caste's desire to destroy the middle class than about any riots.

Agent Posts: 2338 Member Since: 2011-08-22

Erica Ambler wrote:

When I'm being knifed or robbed I hope my reaction isn't 'This kind of mad consumerism isn't terribly new.'

Just attempting to deflate the overly rosy-eyed view of the past expressed in this thread.

Consumerism isn't new, and in and of itself, it isn't harmful. People going apey over a bloody pair of Nikes is. There's nothing roseate about that.