No-one seems able to figure out what the current riots in London are all about - least of all those actually rioting. It’s certainly more than the flashpoint of a police shooting - but if this is the straw that broke the camel’s back, what is the camel?
Men - real men, not just geeks like me (& you no doubt) - have been finding life increasingly difficult as the UK de-industrialised. The pre-industrial trades of blacksmithery, cobbling, etc have long since gone, and as boat yards and pits shut; furniture (and everything else) was made abroad, what was their left to do? Besides joining the army, the range of jobs are either demasculating or imbued with less-and-less honour. Where now the boy who longs to be a Postman?
The left-wing are just as guilty as the financiers and right-wing politicians for remodelling the economy - encouraging everyone to go to university to become part of the “knowledge” society - or whatever it was called - for the new meritocratic elite could be joined by people from any class! …so long as you are smart. This new elite is somewhat fairer than the old upper-middle-class reign but it is still elitist - and what really grinds is their self-satisfied justification. They don’t even SEE that they are the elite - “well I was brought up in a hole in the floor…” that’s great, but you are one of only a handful of rich, famous people who got successful - there are millions - MILLIONS - more who were not blessed with your looks/intellect/wit who are still in one of those floor-holes.
And boy have boys been hit by all of this. It’s not PC to consider any boy an underdog, yet the turning away from boyish work toward call centres and service industries we are leaving a heck of a lot of boys without jobs to do. The narrowing of what is termed a “successful” life to wealth or fame means there is no pride in even doing these jobs if they were available. What’s more, the movement of education away from vocational toward intellectual subjects is leaving many young men both disinterested in learning and feeling like failures - which comes first is chicken and egg.
And they feel it. Men have a drive to provide, yet they can’t get a job. They want act well, but there is little prospect of much in the way of wealth or respect. They will never afford to own their own house - not like the skilled craftsmen or miners they might have been in a previous generation. They can’t provide for themselves let alone a family. They are - by definition - not part of the meritocratic elite, so they can’t necessarily find the fancy words to explain how they are feeling - or understand why it is. They don’t know what to say, but they just WANT TO BE HEARD.
And so to the riots. Is this isolated thuggery? The right will simply wish to lock them up. The left will want to start community programs to save the next generation. But they are already screwed. As are the generations to come until our focus swings back to manufacturing; craftsmanship; respect for men. Is that likely to happen? No. Can we do anything about it? Not much. Is this unrest likely to re-occur/get worse over the coming years. Yes, very likely. Will our politicians + other driving forces of society (like £1k+ celebrity tweeters) understand it? No, that’s highly unlikely.
Interestingly, the towering edifice that is the house-of-cards modern financial system is also blipping this week. (I’ve written before on these failings) Those Financiers who made millions upon millions moving all of those jobs to China and elsewhere; re-gearing the economy to grow using financial services and great volumes of debt; those who did more damage to our local high street businesses than any riots ever will. Their actions - and the actions of governments to allow this rich-person’s greed to drive our western countries forward is starting to unravel - in both an economic and social way.
