John Croft
Thursday, 11 August 2011
The riots in the UK are teaching us some important lessons. Firstly they teach us that the values at the heart of the Capitalist system, with the market being driven by greed or fear, are destructive of any sense of community, and create isolation and alienation of large groups of people. Secondly, an economy that is based on the competition of a win-lose game is only sustainable if the losers have a genuine chance of exiting their losing position and re-entering the “game” with the hope of becoming a winner. The fact that the British economy is not permitting this to occur, but is condemning a whole generation of alienated youth to long term unemployment at the same time as their services are being cut, is creating an underclass of permanent “losers”. This generation has been ignored by the establishment “winners”, and Britain is now paying the price. In such circumstances, losers have only two options. Firstly they can refuse to continue to play the game, as they have done, and are still doing across the Arab world. But if they feel that they cannot exit the game, if they are trapped in it, and if they are given the examples of politicians criminally inflating their expense accounts and getting away with it with mere raps upon the knuckles, or if they see police cozying up to media Moguls, like the Murdoch’s with kick-backs and special favours, then a new possibility emerges. It is a “lose-lose” strategy – if you are trapped into permanent loss then you have the option of sabotaging the game for everyone. And it is this that lies at the heart of what we see unfolding. In a life of boring entrapment, where the only escapes being offered are the violence we see in the mass media and IT gaming industry, what happens is that the virtual world spills over into reality. To the young rioters, the night becomes an extension of their video day life, as they take to the streets, in greed and fear.
Lose-lose strategies are emerging everywhere. They are seen in the collapse of the US stock-markets as a result of win-lose gamesmanship between the US Democratic President and Republican Congressmen. They are seen in the domino effects unfolding in Spain, Italy, Greece and Ireland, and the spreading government cuts we are told are necessary to halt political and national bankruptcy and indebtedness. People have been taking to the streets here too, and their voices have been ignored. Such lose-lose outcomes are unfolding in the attempts to mine tar-sands for declining oil, and the destruction of communities and natural environments we see unfolding here. They are seen in the increasing evidence of accelerating climate change as the world fails to curb its mainlining addiction for the consumption of the heroin of oil and fossil fuels.
And so what of the responses to the London riots. What we have seen is a continuation of the polarisations that are at the root of the problem. Rather than considering the source of the problem in a morally, ethically and economically bankrupt economic system, we are seeing an attempt by those in power to “blame the victims”. Parents are being blamed for not “inculcating the right values”, schools are being blamed for not educating people properly, police are being blamed for not properly responding to the rioting outbreaks. Rather than blaming the victims we need to look more carefully at those who are making these fatuous statements – the hidden perpetrators – the people who are showing that they support multi-billion bank payouts so that the gravy train of excessive CEO bonuses can continue.
So given this analysis what can we prescribe. Well in some way it is happening already. In those communities being most effected, we are seeing the emergence of a genuine sense of community, in which people are not reacting with knee jerk simplistic “blame the victim” responses. It is the very ethic groups who are accused of causing the problems – the black and ethnic parents who are stepping in, in a self reliant manner, to police their own streets. These are the other losers in the economic, social and environmental crisis that lies at the root of the matter.
What of the future? Until governments realise that their main source of legitimacy is supporting the building of socially just, sharing and caring communities, such problems will continue. The gravy train cannot continue and politicians and business leaders, if they are to maintain their positions of trust, authority and legitimacy, have to lead by example. Expensive holidays overseas, for the elite, will not convince those who are locked in poverty and declining standards of living. If we are being told we need to cut the expenses of our way of life and reduce services, this should start at the top and not at the bottom of our communities. Reducing tax loopholes and the optional payments of tax for the rich individuals and corporations – the so called winners – needs to occur first. Radical simplication of our lives will not only be good for communities, but good for the environment too. The third component needs to be a maximisation of creativity. To build a win-win system, in place of our current lose-lose strategies, requires an unleashing of community creativity on a scale never before attempted. Not only is this artistic and cultural creativity, although they need their place, this is social, political and economic creativity, technological and environmental creativity, and ultimately spiritual creativity, as what we see, on all sides, is symptoms of a deep spiritual failure at the heart of consumer society.
In this we need to recognise, that, although understandable, violence is not the way. Violence erupts as a result of the escalation of deeper structural violence within uncaring societies. But violence only creates more violence, and it is a long way down. As Martin Luther King showed after he entered cities damaged by black violence, non-violence is the only way. These messages are present and spreading fast in the disaffected and alienated communities mostly impacted by the nights of rage and greed spreading throughout the UK.
If we can manage to do these four things, build supportive and caring communities, radically simplify and narrow the gaps between “have” and “have not”, maximise creativity and learn the deeper practices of building non-violent responses then we may have a hope for the future. If not – its going to be a long and bumpy ride to the bottom.
