Close To Being Right

London is currently experiencing the worse outbreak of public dossier in a quarter of a century and while its easy to call for tougher policing and the use of water cannons we must remind ourselves that a failure to address the problems at the route of the ongoing rioting in London will leave us vulnerable to it’s timely repetition.  

It’s becoming clear that the shooting of Mark Duggan is no longer the driving force and that what we are witnessing is an outburst of opportunistic theft and arson.  However there is more to this then meets the eye and while the rioters may not be politically motivated they are a symptom of political failure.  Underprivileged teenagers in London have been driven underground by years of social exclusion; the jobs market is floundering and the prospect of higher education with its overbearing debts have combined to leave the young with little in the way of realistic prospect.   When you don’t have a steak in the game you become detached from the fate of the game and that’s why they don’t care when they see their own communities go up in smoke. 

I know that every opportunity I’ve ever had is a result of the support of my parents.  It’s because of this that I find it impossible to be able to tell you how I would think, feel and behave without them.  I would be a completely different person, the one thing I do know is that I would have a lot less to lose.     

But this has already been said; so here what I believe is an important and overlooked formula as to why these riots are happening

Talk to young people in London and you will quickly realise how many of them define themselves with expensive clothing & jewellery.  Having the right trainers and the right cap is important to them and that is a direct result of good marketing. Estimates suggest that people living in cites are exposed to between 1500 and 3000 adverts every day.  On every mode of public transport, in every newspaper, on every street and on almost every channel we are constantly confronted by cynically devised adverts specifically designed to make us believe that we need specific products.  A well made advert will rob you of your happiness and sell it back to you in the shape of the product they’re selling.   It seems harmless (especially for those of us lucky enough to have disposable incomes) but this has the potential to be subconsciously soul destroying.  Though our culture and its dependence on consumerism we have created a society of people who use material possessions as a way of expressing themselves.   Most of us see things we want but can’t afford and instantly acknowledge the fact that we can’t have them.  Without even thinking about it we know that we can’t break the law to attain them because a criminal record would damage our career, however without the prospect of a career or the anchor of a caring family it is impossible for us to know that we wouldn’t be tempted to join in.   When everything we’re told that we want is behind glass, occasionally that glass is going to get broken.