Riots. Typical English recreational activity. And lots and lots of hand wringing and soul searching from people that really can NEVER understand what motivates people to do this because, let's face it, their backgrounds are as different from those of these kids as possible.
Rioting's wrong. Attacking shops and, even worse, individuals', homes is disgraceful. To be fair no-one is justifying this part of it. It did get rather out of hand ...
Of course a lot of it was opportunism from organised gangs. And have pundits made any real attempt to work out why kids join gangs? Of course not.
I was in a gang in my twenties. I absolutely loved it. I loved the power we had and the fear from 'straight's when we were around. We didn't ever start any trouble, and we were rather tinged with intellectualism and irony, but we did some pretty terrible stuff, far worse than a bit of rioting!
My other little bit of personal experience is that I actually live on one of the estates where rioters generally originate from. This time we had no trouble, but we certainly have had in the past. In fact the whole of Hartcliffe's pretty proud that the kids here didn't get involved. This estate does have a very strong sense of community which I'm sure helps.
So what really is behind all this? I reckon three things. Peak Oil and the end of growth, consumerism and crap communities.
Peak Oil effects seem to be affecting the whole world, principally by wiping out growth (from the 'credit crunch' onwards), which leaves almost all of us on the edge finacially.
Consumerism is a really sad substitute for real life. I hate it. I couldn't care less what things are or what they cost. It's pathetic.
Crap communities? Caused mainly by the idiot freak Thatcher and stupid rags like the Daily Mail, which seek to frighten people, setting different sections of society against each other.
It also didn't help that Thatcher, probably the most moronic prime minister we've ever suffered, created this dependency culture that led to the rise (in numbers) of the underclass. Whilst there was a chance of growth I suppose everyone had a chance, but those days are clearly over. When the Fed announces that interest rates in the US will remain 'extremely low' for at least two years you know the game's up. We need massive hikes in interest rates to bring the real message home, that the days of waste, credit and badly directed resources have to end. The government is still sending out mixed and pointless messages.
They've been stirring this pot for years and now it's boiling.
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