correct and well put, Mark, however, many of these points have been made, a French journalist pointed out that not a single political poster was noticeable, she was asked to compare the London riot with the last Paris one,
Appalled by the standard of debate bout these events....here's my take on it:-
Why the riots?
The neoliberal capitalism of Thatcher, Murdoch, Blair, Bush,
Obama, China, the banks, Jonathan Ross, Richard Branson, has…..
Taught us that what is important is material possessions
Made whole sections of the population superfluous
Funded the gaining of possessions through high levels of personal and household debt
Destroyed traditional communities based on workplace, destroying the sources of self worth and responsibility
Ridiculed collective values, privatised and marginalised social provision
Commercialised childhood
Forced many working people into unemployment, underemployment or insecure, casual low wage work, stressing and undermining family life
Fetishised the trivial, the celebrity, cheapening culture and celebrating selfishness and boorishness
Encouraged rocketing inequality
Shown that exotic levels of violence against people and their towns and cities is just fine
Encouraged the import of cheap labour and thereby sown distrust and division among working people
Crashed, increasing poverty, inequality, precariousness, resentment and further weakened collective, social, cultural resources.
So why the surprise?
The riots are not a protest
The riots are not caused by public spending cuts
The riots are not a result of criminality
The riots are not riots
The riots are not class action
The riots are not a result of bad parenting
The riots are not the politics of envy
The riots are all these things and none of them
The riots are a result of a coming together of forces and processes.
There is no simple explanation and no explanation in the behaviour of the individual looter.
To understand the riots requires an understanding of how economy, politics, ideology, belief, motivation, morality, socialisation and the dynamics of belonging and alienation work together as system and systems.
Don’t tell me that is an excuse, and don’t tell me how tough you are going to be.
Tell me you see that this is complicated and it requires a completely different way of living our society.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
The harvest of neoliberal capitalism is well and truly home.
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