Trying to get my head around all this rioting in England… I grew up in a West Midlands housing estate, I went to a comprehensive school, I’ve worked in a warehouse, worked in pubs and taught 16+ year olds at a college - I’ve seen these dormant rioters, I’ve seen their lack of reason, their lack of interest and their extreme materialism.

I don’t believe there is any political motivation behind these riots, or any reasonable protest. Certainly not outside of Tottenham, and I don’t condone smashing up and punishing a community over the death of one individual.

The knock on effect it has had is huge. Who’d have thought that Warp records would have lost their entire back catalogue?

Who’d have thought 3 people would have been murdered by hit and run thugs in Birmingham?

There’s a feral population within our otherwise civilised land.

It had me thinking about root causes - although too complex to sum up, I feel the main problem in our violent pockets of society is that fear and peer pressure is the biggest cause, and the main direct cause of oppression is that imposed by the people themselves, on each other. One young teenager was asked why he was rioting, to which he replied “cuz we paying too much taxes”. Does this kid even know what taxes are? How they pave the ground he walks on? How they pay for his health? How they pay for the people and equipment that douses the flames that burn people’s houses down? (Or in this case, family businesses). If there is a responsibility from above it must come in the form of education. Rather than disinterested kids having to open their maths books, or learn about population density in Rio de Janeiro, or learn about the electrons of hydrogen atoms - perhaps more importantly they should be made aware of how this civilisation came into being, how our grandparents fought wars and were bombed, how we fought against fascism and helped set europe free from such evils, how the luxuries and technology available to us today came about through decades of research and hard work. They need to see the processes, not as guilt-mongery, but as logic. They need to understand the importance of their place in this society, not as the mobile-phone owning, Nike shoe-wearing, tweeting ‘entitlement generation’ who want it all but don’t want to work for it, they need to feel a part of it, and contribute to it.

Some teenage girls in London were enjoying a bottle of rosé wine that they had looted, when asked what the riots are for they replied they were against ‘the rich’. Yet these materialistic kids want the benefits and luxuries of a wealthy land, they idolise filthy rich pop stars or footballers, they wear their one-upmanship with their top-of-the-line trainers (sneakers). These are the kids who bullied the poor kid at school whose parents couldn’t afford Nike. They are victims, slaves even, to the materialistic world. They have zero interest in where it comes from or how long it takes to earn the money to buy them, their interests don’t go further than their nose. They are despised by the rest of society and they despise society, they even despise each other - they are not a group of people with a sense of community - they vandalise their own communities. They compete with each other, fight each other. These are the people who take part in football violence, and the younger ones are the kids who take part in school rivalry fights. Mindless, meaningless.

All I could think is that this is a Lord of the Flies situation. I wasn’t the first to think of it, I googled ‘lord of the flies riots’ and saw several mentions of the novel. One line I saw was ‘Lord of the Flies dressed by Adidas’. Which I thought was spot on.

For those unfamiliar with the William Golding novel, or indeed the film (the original British black and white one being better IMO), the story is about a group of schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited island. Two very different boys stand forward as leaders, Ralph - a gentle, sensible, intelligent boy with the interest of the other boys in mind, puts forward ideas of democracy via voting and tries to bring order, his main goal being getting rescued. Jack - the other leader, is in competition with Ralph. His concerns are short sighted rebellious ones, he uses fear and violence to win over the majority, and Ralph soon loses his disciples to Jack. As Ralph is unwilling to compete in a savage manner, the island becomes subject to Jack’s reign and the mini-society turns into a savage riot, and there are even fatalities. The burning island eventually gets spotted by seamen and the boys are rescued from their anarchy.

The author, William Golding, was himself a school teacher, and therefore had intricate inside understandings of the psychology of young boys. He was obviously aware of how the instinct to save oneself was an important component within peer pressure and the joining-in of violent and unruly activities.

I believe this is a major factor in our violent cultures. And not just the violent cultures, but the less harmful ‘bad attitude’. You can open a shop door for people in my town, and although most people would thank you, I’ve often done it for a group of youths who have walked through one by one without even eye contact, leaving me standing there like a door wedge. This may not seem a big deal compared to burning buildings, but it is this ignorant attitude that is at the root. And I KNOW that this bad attitude is total conformist behaviour. I’ve seen how weak mindedness leads to ‘hard men’. I saw it at school, I saw it among grown men in the workplace, I’ve seen it in the classroom where I was the teacher. Often there is one bully in the group, bent on having attention and being recognised as the leader. The others follow out of fear of being ‘uncool’ or maybe fear of something more serious, like psychological or physical harm. Enthusiasm turns into accusations of geekery. Geeks are bullied. So you end up with a rotten apple spoiling the bunch. I’ve witnessed this lone bully being removed from the group, and saw the changes in the faces and behaviour of the rest of the group. I’ve sensed the relief in the others, despite their previous apparent enjoyment in ‘playing up the teacher’. It’s as if they are given the opportunity to return to normality. I’ve seen how individuality is made to crawl under a rock at the whiff of peer pressure. It’s a blending in process, not wanting to stand out, a social camouflage. Yet the symptoms are apparently rebellious, ‘fuck the system’, ‘fuck the police’, ‘fuck the government’ etc. 

This is why you don’t find many goths in council estates. They get bullied pretty much instantly, they are treated as weak by weak minded thugs who use violence to cover up their own fears. And it’s not just name calling, I remember seeing a story on the news of a young goth who was beaten to death by chavs. Why? How does this individual threaten their territory? It’s just weak minded cowardly behaviour, one that has now got them jail sentences.

Most youth cultures throughout the ages are self aware and self titled - goths, emos, punks, rockers, mods etc. but ‘chavs’ are not a self titled group. They are not really a group, although they appear to have a uniform like all the others, ‘chavs’ is what the rest of society call them. Chavs tend to listen to current music of the time and wear the latest sportswear. Chavs have in fact been around for a long time and adapt slightly to the times. But it’s hard to see them as a group, because a group is kind of like the coming together of like minded individuals sharing an interest. Chavs share interests, and are often like minded, but chavs don’t seem to celebrate it in the same way that other groups do. Being a chav is kind of non-committal, but this doesn’t mean they are not conformist, on the contrary. The accents, slang, behaviour, walk, shape of baseball cap, hand-down-eleasticated waist jogging bottoms or hand-resting-on-belly-lifting the t-shirt look is a very contrived and deliberate one. Weird.

People are scared to challenge them because they know their defensive manner is uncivilised. Ask a group of chavs to turn their music off on the bus and you’ll probably get a face full of abuse. They don’t have the balls to admit when they are wrong.

But things are changing. A friend of mine was in a pub garden, a youth walked past with his hood up and scarf around his face. He was on the way to town, maybe to cause trouble, maybe just to look like he was going to cause trouble. When the rest of the people in the pub saw him, they all ran to the gates hurling abuse at this kid “fucking dole scum” “get a fucking job” “go home” “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough” etc. It didn’t turn to violence thankfully, but it showed this kid that the majority of people, in this case working class men, do not revere these scum bags, and actually despise these leeches of society. The kid, maybe ashamed of his guise, seemed to have got the message as he removed his scarf and hood and carried on walking.

So if peer pressure is to win over the weak minded, we need to shift that peer pressure to be about contributing to society, earning your way and respecting others. I’m all up for conformity if it is for the good of the people.

A word about generalisation:

It may appear that I am generalising about chavs. Of course wearing adidas joggers and a baseball cap does not make you a thug, and there are many people who choose this attire who are tax-paying, law-abiding citizens. I condemn prejudices based on things like appearance, race, gender, age etc.

The reason why chavs are getting a mention so much during these times is because if you watch the videos, look at the pictures - it’s what you see.

I didn’t see any goths or emos hurling bricks at JD sports.

It’s just an observation. But right now, I imagine chavs are getting some dodgy looks off other people.