The Real Mystery
Aug. 12th, 2011 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThere's no mystery about why the kids did what they did.
The young crave excitement, lack empathy (it's to do with brain chemistry), have a huge sense of entitlement, despise their elders.
So they smash things up. Everything from bus shelters to social conventions. Some of which is good.
We've all been there, but we forget- or we cast a retrospective glamour over our youthful shittiness.
I didn't burn and loot high street shops, but I did things that were, morally speaking, just as bad. Bet you did too.
There's no need to bring poverty into the equation. The PM, the Chancellor and the Mayor of London used to be in a gang called the Bullingdon Club. Their schtick was to get very, very drunk, trash restaurants and assault passers-by. None of them was poor.
Usually there are restraints in place to keep youthful mischief-making within bounds- to keep the outrages small-scale and local. For some reason they just failed.
Why? Why now? That's the real mystery.
The young crave excitement, lack empathy (it's to do with brain chemistry), have a huge sense of entitlement, despise their elders.
So they smash things up. Everything from bus shelters to social conventions. Some of which is good.
We've all been there, but we forget- or we cast a retrospective glamour over our youthful shittiness.
I didn't burn and loot high street shops, but I did things that were, morally speaking, just as bad. Bet you did too.
There's no need to bring poverty into the equation. The PM, the Chancellor and the Mayor of London used to be in a gang called the Bullingdon Club. Their schtick was to get very, very drunk, trash restaurants and assault passers-by. None of them was poor.
Usually there are restraints in place to keep youthful mischief-making within bounds- to keep the outrages small-scale and local. For some reason they just failed.
Why? Why now? That's the real mystery.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 09:09 am (UTC)I said it because I could.
I hate advertising. It's the lie-machine at the heart of consumer culture. It makes us want things we don't need- and value things that are valueless.
I don't actually think there are any simple explanations for what happened. Some of the rioters were poor, some were anything but.
But riots have causes. They're symptomatic of something rotten in the state. Blaming the rioters- and only the rioters- without regard to the society they're part of- will get us nowhere.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 03:23 pm (UTC)As for assigning blame, I agree, the rioters are symptoms of a bigger problem. I'd blame the parents and other authority figures that let things get out of control.
An interesting article here about how authority figures have become too afraid to use any kind of discipline, and how that results in kids doing whatever they want.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8698193/How-to-recover-Britains-streets-for-civilisation.html