There's a riot going on ...

"What causes riots is a hot Saturday night in any dumb cockroach-filled neighborhood where there's a lot of guys standing on the corner and they don't have no bread, no broads and no wheels." - Murray Roman

OK, flippant, but you get the picture and it isn't untrue: whatever the proximate cause may be the underlying one is just a bunch of people with a feeling that they've got nothing to lose. Those who do the finger-pointing in the aftermath of a riot - the politicians, the police, the media and all the other self-styled leaders of men - throw words like 'thugs', 'gangsters', 'anarchists' at the participants, slap mobile phones and Twitter around a bit for aiding and abetting and don't take the analysis any further because they can't take it any further without admitting that there's a larger problem to do with society itself that they are unwilling and unable to fix.

Let's for a moment forget about those who actually take part in riots (and there are doubtless many seriously unpleasant people among them, but the existence of such people does not provide an adequate explanation in itself of what's going on here) and let's take a look instead at those who don't. The people who don't riot, and would never dream of rioting, are those with good jobs, nice houses and a tolerable life, those in other words who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. So the solution is ... never going to happen. Unfortunately the next best solution, a revival of the social contract that guaranteed that no-one would be homeless, without adequate medical care or stuck in a life without hope or joy is not going to happen either because it's unachievable without squeezing the rich, who have the money to buy enough politicians to ensure that they don't get squeezed.

Nothing will change this until enough of the people with good jobs, nice houses and a tolerable life find themselves without these things, and the consequences of that will be so far from pretty that everyone should be breaking into a cold sweat of fear at the thought and moving the foundations of the Earth itself in search of a solution, but they aren't and they won't: if I've learned anything from all these years on this planet it's that human beings learn nothing.

Addendum: the destruction of people's livelihoods, homes and peace of mind is inexcusable and intolerable in any kind of civilised society. Riots are an evil, full stop.