First I want to say I in no way condone the mindless violence that has occurred over the last few days. It has left me frightened, not only for my friends and family in London and the other affected areas but also for me and my family and what is to come.
I don't think that we can just write these incidents off as pockets of opportunists, in my mind there is definitely more to it than that. Capitalism is to blame in a major way, as is the current government. Us parents have to take a certain amount of responsibility too, the young people who have been stuck in front of the electronic babysitter (TV, for the unknowing) for hours on end from a very young and tender age have been spoonfed consumerism and this NEED to have everything.
The cuts made by the government on education, funding for school holiday clubs, and other such facilities have created a large civil unease in the young over the course of the last year and couple that with an idle mind that wanders to social media for entertainment,the increasing amount of almost totally lifelike violent games that have desensitised people to the prosepct of real gore and horror, the desire created by the advertising/media/PR execs that we must have these beautiful things(!) in our lives - it's all responsible and in part I can understand how it's happened.
I'm no real conspiracy theorist but I don't think this is the end of it either. The Met have all had their holiday revoked so 16,000 will now be on the streets tonight, but that just focuses all the attention in London. What about all the other high streets and shopping centres across the country, surely we're all a target for the uprising of the disaffected youth, no?
What is the answer? I don't think it's about the police that's for sure. If London gets hit again tonight then there is going to be a shitload of trigger happy coppers in pockets making overly "cautious" snap decisions which they'll write off as collateral damage. The people won't see it that way, which in turn will create more unease, and not just from the youth then as the parents will be incensed and seek recompense and justice for their loved ones.
It's got to be looking at the very foundations of our society, looking at what COMMUNITY means and taking responsibility, not just for ourselves but for our environment around us. The adage "don't shit on your own doorstep" has been decimated and it's about time those of us that care about where we live took it back. Not just from the kids that have spent such a short time wrecking it but also from the politicians who have helped in part to piss them off in the first place. To use another adage "it takes a community to raise a child" needs to be reclaimed too. We all need to open our front doors again and talk to our neighbours, get to know their kids, feed them if necessary, teach them about playing with TOYS (and I don't mean cheap plastic replica guns), not games consoles.
We need to reclaim our children, back from the media, back from the anger and agression and teach them that if they don't like something - DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT CONSTRUCTIVELY.
I know this is a very rose-tinted long-term view, I don't have a quick-fix answer to the immediate problems, I guess all that can be done in the short-term is treat the symptoms but I what I do know is that I don't want my 2 under 6's joining the ranks of those that think that the world owes them a living.
