I was very fortunate, last night, not to be living near any shops. The rioters got to within a few hundred yards of me but no nearer. After five hours on Twitter, watching buildings being burned to the ground on the news, I was starting to wonder where the army were. Eventually I dragged myself to bed. So what now? There is the expected clash between hardliners and liberals which I won’t rehearse here.
As far as I’m concerned, last night’s riots were a physical expression of what has been going on in the minds of many people who would never consider smashing a window. I’ve had the ‘Why aren’t we rioting?’ conversation several times recently, always while discussing the banks. I had to laugh at Nick Cohen’s otherwise good piece in the Guardian the other day. He seems to think those in debt are okay because of low interest rates. Alas, I am one of the many who is being bent over a barrel and shafted by certain financial institutions constantly raising rates, and I have felt like rioting myself at times.
The gap between rich and poor has been getting visibly wider since I started working, over 20 years ago. And it has only got worse. Businesses and individuals are going down all over the place, while the UK is still being run by millionaires who, with the best will in the world, have literally no idea what it’s like to have nothing but the money in your hand to live on. No property, shares, ISAs, land to sell, or rich family members to borrow off. Too many of those in power are fortunate in that way, and they simply have no idea about how most of the population live. The media hasn’t helped because so many people who work in it are comparatively well off, or at least get to write about enough freebies to make it look like they are. £500 quid facial, anyone? There is still an ‘us and them’ feel, even in supposedly left of centre papers.
It’s important to say that there is no golden age when everyone was lovely to each other. But last night’s rioting is a legacy of decades of eroded values and obsession with money and possessions over all else. Also, as a result of this, I have observed, in the last few years, a sense of self-righteous entitlement about some young people that is way more alienating than simple aggression. But it’s always the bad apples that give the rest a bad name. Most teens just want to get on with their lives and grow up and learn things and experience things, but they are demonised. Now it will be much, much worse for them, because of a few.
Also, because of a few, legitimate political protesters are going to be hit much harder in the future.
I am so tired of money culture being thrust in all our faces, all of the time. Not everyone makes money. Not everyone can. But over the last 15 years or so there has been a corporatisation of the individual. Some of it comes from trying to import US values (get up and go, a certain kind of professionalism), which isn’t all bad either. But there are certain things that you must be doing, or you are second class and/or stupid, and one is make money and therefore own things. Our ‘proper citizen’ homeowner culture is part of this, and I am really tired of it. (What has been done to housing in the last 10-15 years makes me utterly furious – but that is another blog post.)
Plus, this culture has made us really soft – ‘Hey, there’s a Pret in the high street and I can just about afford another Jo Malone candle, so I’ll just keep quiet,’ – and to get publicly or visibly angry would be an instant giveaway that you might be having problems. If you aren’t one of the haves that the media has waved in our faces so much for the last decade, it’s best to hide away in shame.
Perhaps this will change now? Last night’s riots affected us all. So perhaps it’s time for us all to come out about the realities in our lives and start talking to each other.
SchizotypalGrasp (@StGrasp)
August 9, 2011
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The weak riot, talk and accomplish nothing.
henrymcg (@henrymcg)
August 9, 2011
On the other hand these were kids organising themselves with Blackberry technology more powerful than anything available to even middle class people 20 years ago. And maybe using Twitter, meaning they had access to all the information and entertainment on the net.
The rich-poor wage gap might be bigger, but quality of life is not bad. That’s right not bad. People have gotten used to benefits and the NHS and seem to think it is some basic right that these should exist, when in fact they are luxuries that we could afford because we were rich for a while. We’re still lucky to live in this age
Each person has a choice. I am unemployed, and though I am sometimes a bit of a selfish bastard, I choose to spend my time educating myself, improving my career prospects, because there’s no other choice but to try and improve from where you are. There is currently access to information resources unparalleled in any other age.
Every one of those rioters and looters COULD BE DOING THE SAME – but each one chose to destroy instead. Nothing the government does can every help without ordinary people making more positive choices
There is no sound basis for saying that the situation we find ourselves in is a ‘reason’ for rioting. Some people feel like letting off steam, so conveniently blame police and government, and people who have more than them – possibly through harder work.
What are these millionaires you talk about to do? They could give all their money away, be destitute themselves, and it would keep a lot of people going for a couple of years maximum, and then what? It’s easy to come up with complaints.
Why we got to this stage is an important question.What we are going to do now even more important. You’re damn right that if anything good comes of this – it’s the debate we all can have about where we’re going. But the fact is these rioters have just made life worse for everyone else in this country. They chose to, many of them for a laugh.
phingerspex
August 11, 2011
Various studies have shown that humans have an innate sense of ‘fairness’, and in situations where they can accept a small disadvantage to prevent someone else getting an ‘unfair’ advantage, or to allow the other person to gain with no disadvantage to themselves, they will usually go for the former. The point is that when we see bankers getting huge bonuses as reward for taking short-term risks and getting lucky, MPs getting thousands of pounds in fraudulent expenses and receiving nothing more than a telling off, the media constantly celebrating profligate lifestyles and rampant consumerism, it all feels a bit unfair to be struggling to pay for clothes or anything remotely like luxuries.
So it’s the relative inequality that causes the feeling of being hard done by, rather than the absolute level of poverty. I don’t know the figures for the UK, but recently saw an analysis of the US income that showed in the last 30 years, the wealthiest 1% have doubled their share of total income, and tripled the gap between their income and the bottom 20%.
Margaret Thatcher must be well pleased to see that the inequality of talent and opportunity is rewarding those at the top so disproportionately.
I think ‘the media’ play a large part in emphasising status as a function of possession and position, and focusing on consumerism, appearance and superficial glamour. The hope I have is that because ‘the media’ is becoming more and more fragmented, we have a much greater ability to influence our society. Simply by linking less to stories about rich WAGs and designer frocks, and linking more to news about community improvements, personal triumphs and values that we’d like to promulgate, we can create an environment where those actions and views are more highly valued.
bruceh2010
August 11, 2011
On another comment-place someone suggested it was a case of ‘bread and circuses’: I think the intention was to suggest that benefits took care of the bread but ‘X Factor’ et al were no longer enough from an entertainment pov. However a promising start ended as unintelligible ramble so I’m not quite sure. :-)
Me – I like the plain old ‘criminality’ explanation – although it needs to be brought home to MPs rather more strongly by making clear that the youth of Liverpool etc do not have access to ‘MPs expenses’ and so loot shops when they want something for nothing.