Kindling

It's 1:45am and this is probably a mistake. But my head is buzzing with thoughts, and I don't know if I'll be able to sleep until I get it all out.

This is about those riots that you might have seen on the news or in your street.

The basic argument is as follows: the rioters are stupid, violent, short-sighted, and selfish. And that this is a direct consequence of capitalism.

But before I begin, here are some necessary caveats:

CAVEAT 1

I probably shouldn't be writing this now. This probably isn't the time to be looking at the social causes of this madness. Everyone is using these events to support their political viewpoint. I don't think it's necessarily opportunism (it's an attempt to find reason in chaos), but it can probably wait a few days.

The trouble is, I can't sleep. So you'll have to bear with me.

CAVEAT 2

This is in no way an endorsement of these actions. The idiots smashing windows and burning cars are indefensible. Their actions are helping no-one, they are cowardly, they are apolitical, and they have been wrongly associated with activism. This isn't activism, it's scattershot rage fuelled by cynicism and self-interest.

CAVEAT 3

I'm not particularly anti-capitalist. Capitalism leads to a lot of suffering and awful consequences, but so do other economic systems. I think the free market has a lot of plus points. But when it's unfettered, it can lead to... well, this.

CAVEAT 4

This is probably all extremely obvious stuff. I'm not breaking any new ground here. But I have read the opinions of some people that have made me quite angry with their short-sightedness, and I want to redress the balance with some short-sightedness of my own.

CAVEAT 5

I'm going to sound very sure of myself here. I'm not sure of myself, but my 'argument' is helped by me putting things in strong terms. I'm going to make a lot of assumptions and sweeping statements. I'm sorry, but it's late.

OK? Let's go. This won't take long.

***

The rioters are stupid, violent, short-sighted, and selfish.

Let's start with stupidity. These rioters are going through the motions of a revolution, but they don't understand what it entails. The have the face masks and the Molotov cocktails and the broken windows, but they don't have the righteousness.

Who are their targets? The police, I suppose. That's how this all started. And attacks on the police would at least make sense, even if they weren't condemned. But cars in the street? Local businesses?

Perhaps the banks would make good targets. They might be worthwhile. It might be a comment on the financial situation. But the banks are untouched. Who cares about the evils of high finance when there's a furniture showroom to torch?

Idiots. But... why? A cynical person (and that person might be me for tonight) might suggest that people from deprived areas might not have access to the best education. That they might feel cast adrift and that they have no incentive to be politically informed.

An even more cynical person might suggest that it's in the interests of capitalism to keep people as stupid as possible, because it makes it easier to sell them things.

When those on the Right complain about high taxes, and resent the idea of contributing to state-run education, they must realise that this is the inevitable result of their selfishness.

I'm sure this all sounds very patronising, and I'm sorry about that. I'm not referring to all people from these areas. There are many more who are sensible and intelligent and involved and who aren't smashing the window at Ladbrokes.

But the people who are causing all this trouble are stupid. And they didn't choose to be stupid.

Let's try violence. They're violent. Smashing windows achieves nothing, but it does make a statement, albeit a crude, nasty statement. This kind of non-political anger and destruction is difficult to understand. And idiots like me will try to understand it, and interpret it, and discuss it at length (like in this blog post).

But these riots are loud, even if they are substance-less. If you deny people a voice, they will leap at the chance to make themselves heard, even if they don't have the eloquence to express their dissatisfaction in complex terms.

When people are ghettoised, they feel like they're being ignored. And they are. So they make a loud noise to show us that they're there, to show us that they're not totally impotent.

But this frustration, this violence, becomes hijacked. People bring cynicism into it. A primal scream becomes a knowing sneer quickly, and the fury of the justified becomes the frivolous, bullying destruction of people who think they can get away with it.

People who feel cut off from society have no loyalty to it. When economic inequality becomes so great, when the gap between rich and poor is stretched, society doesn't become "big", it falls apart.

They're short-sighted because they're damaging their own community. They're not fighting the real villains. This is not going to help. But I suppose foresight isn't really the issue, because this isn't the pursuit of a political cause.

My brother-in-law Jos posted a great comment on Facebook, saying he wished the young people had voted instead of rioting. That is correct.

But I suppose you might as well be short-sighted if you don't have a future.

And finally, they're selfish. That one's easy. Capitalism is all about selfishness. People are told to climb the ladder, to make money, to avoid paying tax on that money, to resent helping the less fortunate. Kick the ladder away when you get to the top.

These people are looting and stealing things. Why? Because selfishness is good. Because people are judged by their financial worth. Because having expensive stuff is something to aspire to.

There's a common criticism of the working class that they claim to have no money, but spend it on expensive trainers and video game consoles. But that's because every aspect of the media is telling people that material things are what we should be striving for.

Capitalism creates a feverish desire for money, and then breeds hatred for the people left behind. They're benefit cheats. They're vulgar. How dare they want money?

There's only so much. Maybe they should work a little harder.

Those "youths" on the street, burning things down and scaring people are true children of capitalism. Vicious and greedy, totally lacking in empathy, and unwilling or unable to address the wider contexts of what put them in that position in the first place.

Again, I know I'm being patronising. But I do not respect these rioters.

I believe that people should have the right to protest. I believe that the people should be able to stand up to oppressive power. But this doesn't seem to be that. This shames legitimate activism and gives the Right all the more ammunition in their fight against 'disorder'.

This is altogether more unpleasant than political protest - even extreme cases. No-one comes out of this well, and nothing good can come of this. I'm angry with the scenes that have played out today, and I'm scared of the consequences.

As I said, this probably isn't the time to discuss the background. This isn't the time for my armchair socialism, or my ill-informed political analysis of minority behaviour.

Then again, this is a blog. Maybe this isn't the time, but it's certainly the place.

I suppose I'm writing all this because I read comments on Twitter saying "Don't try and justify it. They're just yobs."

I find that thinking very worrying. Because if they're just yobs, if they're just bad, then we can't do anything about it. We can just lock some of them up. But it will happen again. More buildings will burn, more communities will suffer, and we'll have to sit on our hands because... they're just yobs.

It may be pointless to try to look deeper into this, but I'd rather be in a situation where people are at least trying to understand the forces at work here. We might not be able to stop it happening again, but let's have a go.