What happens when you whip up outrage in a struggling global economy? The Hill discusses the security threats for Obama when he travels to London next month to attend the G20 summit. These types of summits always attract anarchists and other anti-globalization protesters, but this year they have a new theme:
Another group, known as G20 Meltdown, distributed a flier with a picture of dummy hanging by a noose and the caption “what a banker,” calling on agitators to storm the Bank of England at noon on April 1. “We should kick the bankers and their political cronies out of the city and out of power. This is really the beginning of the end.”
A rallying cry of the groups, as heard at a protest outside the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters earlier this month, has been “stay warm during the credit crunch — burn a banker.”
I certainly understand the sentiment. It’s the same sentiment that is so dismissive of issues of fairness that they’re happy if a rich person, any rich person, loses a ton of money for no good reason. There are merits in gathering an angry mob, but you must be able to control it and you must use it for sane political ends. If you’re just as unhinged as the mob you lead, then gathering a mob just makes you dangerous.