London riots, day 3
The right wing press will want us to think that these riots are meaningless; that they are just random acts of criminality from a minority of wrong’uns who belong behind bars: let’s make tougher laws, make some more prisons and carry on as we were. The trouble is, we know now exactly where the right wing press is at. They will hack the phones of grieving parents to sell a story. They are criminals themselves.
Unfortunately, the rot doesn’t stop there. The crooked media were paying off large chunks of the Metropolitan Police, including senior officers. Our prime minister even hired the editor from the paper doing the worst of the hacking. They are all in it together.
Right now we are going through the second massive credit crisis in 3 years. We are told the solution is something called ‘austerity’ or in other words massive cut backs of public services. Wait a second though, the bankers don’t seem to be feeling any austerity. They caused the first financial crisis and then were bailed out to the tune of trillions of dollars. The banks are ‘too big too fail’ but the rest of society can go to hell.
While governments are scrabbling around desperately trying to keep the rotten system afloat the rest of us have more access to information than at any time in human history. People all around the world can see the systematic corruption that keeps the arab dictators, media barons, bankers and politicians in gravy while normal people are told to take the pain.
You don’t need a university degree to see that the world today is unfair or for the reality to sink in that all the established institutions we are supposed to rely on are complicit in an economic system which is a train wreck sliding towards a cliff. The kids on the streets today can smell a rat. They can tell they have no hope of buying into the consumer culture which is shoved down their throats and they know that the police, the media and politicians will all line their pockets until they can barely walk. The system has lost all moral authority and these riots are the result, welcome to the ‘big society’.
None of this is to say that the riots are not wrong. Of course, they are wrong. They are a symptom of a failing system which is wrong: from the insistence on economic growth based on consuming our biosphere, through to undemocratic wars fought on the back of lies, through to a media which will do literally anything to sell a paper.
We need to use these riots as an opportunity to take an honest look at the world we have created and start suggesting practical things we can do to make it better. Let’s use the unlimited access to information to create real democracies. Lets rebuild local economies from which healthy communities can grow. Lets make sure our young people have real opportunities in life and are not expected to just sit back and watch as a bunch of corrupt plutocrats suck up all the money while the planet burns.
More than ever before, the writing is on the wall. It is time for change.
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A view from the streets of Tottenham
Another perspective:
Darcus Howe, a West Indian Writer and Broadcaster
Comments
comments
Great blog. To add to your list of practical ideas to make things better, the following recent ILO report examining the current global financial crisis is worth looking at:
http://www.ilo.org/public/german/region/eurpro/bonn/download/fly_global_crisis.pdf
It provides solid policy suggestions and goes beyond just blaming the banks, looking at why banks were allowed to get so wealthy and have so much money to play with in the first place.
The answer is that for decades wages have not kept up with increases in productivity (increased output for the same labour input), and absolute inequality has increased across the board without exception. Rich have got sickeningly richer and the poor poorer. This isn’t just a moral problem, as this led to decades of debt-driven growth, which we have recently seen implode. People became increasingly dependent on banks to finance the purchases of their consumer goods and homes, and the banks then screwed us all over, which has been well publicised.
If people were given a greater share of a nation’s wealth in the first place, they would have less need to go cap in hand to a bank begging for money, and so no matter how credible or otherwise a bank’s lending policies are, they wouldn’t be needed for loans and they wouldn’t have had the power (or at least, as much power) to play with people’s lives as they did.
Beyond the clearer moral and ethical reasons for why people should get a fair share of created wealth, economically it also makes sense as higher wages would mean more money in people’s pockets which would boost demand and consumption (always needing to be done in a green and local way, of course), thereby aiding recovery.
There are many things we can do to make a better go of this thing we call life, and one is to have a far fairer distribution of created wealth. Capitalism is a system which plays well on our less attractive qualities, greed and fear. We need to inject it with some balance, and draw out our great qualities: love, sharing, compassion, community. Our UK and global economic system – after some promise in the 50s and 60s – has been gradually drained of all of these every day since. It’s time for a serious refill, and then some.
Keep up the hustling man, and hope this finds you well.
What too is of concern is that the actions of the government and others are blatant or barely hidden.
This could suggest by design or perhaps fore knowledge?
than, not then…
You’re getting there. Keep your eyes open.
It is the greed of the ruling minority whose only goal is to perpetuate the status quo which has created the conditions for these riots to happen. How somebody could believe that a generation is to be made subjugate to, and bear the brunt of a merciless society, to accept the bleakest of futures without striking back is beyond comprehension. Or, rather more cynically, they do understand but sympathise with a society that will give them their paycheck whilst others are left to trudge along through grinding poverty.
No thanks, I’d prefer the rioters to burn the whole thing down and we might be able to try again, perhaps along the lines of Ben’s more insightful and constructive comment.
Bang on. Imho the three most powerful steps the average Brit can take to creating a positive world based on sustainable well being comprise:
1. Awaken and liberate yourself from your ego* (http://www.eckharttolle.com/books/newearth/)
2. Check out and get actively involved in the UK Green Party
3. Sign up and adhere to http://www.givingwhatwecan.org
*for the vast majority of us this probably takes approximately a lifetime so might be worth getting onto steps 2 & 3 first?
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the thoughts and links. Loads of good stuff!
Matt
I have eatxcly what info I want. Check, please. Wait, it’s free? Awesome!
This seems to be doing the rounds on Facebook right now… sums it up pretty weel:
”Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people’s ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food, energy and housing to eclipse people’s ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper.”
Brilliantly written and articulated, and more importantly, the truth.
I found your site after you left a link beneath my article on the same subject. In the hope that your readers will also be interested in what I wrote, I’ll post it here:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/london-is-burning-heres-why/
Great article, so glad i found this site which chimes in with everything I believe and feel right now.
I followed this link from face book I had just written something along the same lines on fb due to sheer frustration with peoples attitude over the riots at least there are people who are awake out here in the world nice article.
interesting times to live in, a massive paradigm shift, this will be extremely painful but as Kahil Gibran states:
“pain is the breaking of the boundaries of our understanding”
a new world for the brave and hopeful!