Andrew安德魯雅思權威

Watching the above video, you might decide that America as a country has ‘lost the plot’. Supposedly this is a protest against police brutality and racial discrimination. But a close look at what is happening shows it has transformed into an orgy of mob violence, looting, and anarchy. [See the previous post for the meaning of those underlined words.]

So, are these actions from …

• a few
• some
• half
• or most

… of the people involved?

I can only say that, whatever the number/proportion is, those who perform such acts have completely lost sight of the original purpose – in fact, there is no purpose anymore (apart from robbery and personal gain). There are no demands, no defined outcomes, no constructive points, and nothing to look forward to. It is just criminal activity, and one reason it is happening is that, at the beginning, the leaders of the cities and states ordered the police not to interfere. When nothing happened after the first round of burning and looting, it was quickly realised that anybody could act with impunity. Then, these acts spread like a disease across America.

Those who do these acts are now part of an amorphous, anti-establishment, anti-capitalism revolt, where if you feel angry, aggrieved, disadvantaged, or unfairly treated by society, you can now take revenge by destruction and ritual humiliation on perceived enemies, all with impunity by virtue of the combined power of the mob.

But civil society and social progress is built upon peaceful dialogue. Yes, the status quo can be challenged, but it must be done peacefully, with respect to the rights of others, and with a view to improving society as a whole. When the rule of law breaks down, everything is lost, and the participants become as bad, or even worse, than those they are protesting, and the cost (as many have observed) to these communities will be enormous.

So, let us hope that those doing this are just a small proportion of those who are protesting. But the big question now is, what does America do about it? Order the police to stop it? The military? It's a difficult question to answer.

Here are some of the words used in this post.

• to lose the plot
• brutality
• brutal
• an orgy
• impunity
• amorphous
• status quo