Many Hongkongers have ‘a need for chaos’
- Nihilistic slogans such as “If we burn, you burn with us” have become increasingly common among rioters in Hong Kong. Could this be part of a worldwide trend?
I wonder if it’s just Hong Kong people, who have to face such a terrible dictatorship as the Hong Kong government, and its bloodthirsty tyrant, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Lam this week asked the public to speak out against the riots. That has fallen on deaf ears. Should that be surprising?
A recent award-winning study has exposed similar nihilism in advanced Western democracies, which may help explain Brexit and the Donald Trump presidency. Could what’s happening in Hong Kong be part of a worldwide trend?
Titled “A need for chaos”, the study by two political scientists in Denmark and one in the US was named “the best paper” in the political psychology division at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association last month.
The researchers conducted four surveys in the United States of 5,157 participants, and two in Denmark, with 1,336, with the following statements and more. Those who answered “yes” were identified as people being “drawn to chaos”.
● I think society should be burned to the ground (24 per cent said yes).
● When I think about our political and social institutions, I cannot help thinking “just let them all burn”. (40 per cent said yes).
● We cannot fix the problems in our social institutions, we need to tear them down and start over (Again, 40 per cent said yes).
Taxi driver beaten by mob gives account of crashing into crowd of protesters
Of course, people entertain destructive and antisocial thoughts all the time, without acting on them. But what if opportunities present themselves, say, voting for someone like Trump in the US, Brexit in Britain, or the rise of xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiments against Islam in Europe?
Someone should survey Hong Kong people with the same or similar questions. I imagine the numbers of those who agree with them would be staggeringly high, perhaps even in the majority. They have an excuse to act on them: against the extradition bill; against the Hong Kong government, police and China; against mainland Chinese; against small and expensive flats; against the political system and lack of democracy; in short, against everything – and nothing.
