The recent riots in Britain were, socially and morally, a worse symptom of societal failure than the atrocious Norwegian gun-massacre. The latter, though it took more lives, was the work of a lone madman. The British riots were the work of a sick culture.
There appears to have been a radical aspect to the riots, but people of different races and all levels of class were involved. As well as children (where were their parents?) some of the rioters were affluent, even professional people.
Middle-class, middle-aged people wrecked little corner shops where they had been customers for years, and ruined the lives of shop-keepers who perhaps regarded them as friends. Some shops may have been insured but this would fall far short covering the total damage.
While much has been written in recent years abut the moral pathology affecting large areas of British culture, no-one, I think, fully realised that so large a part of the population were apparently either incapable of distinguishing good from evil, or willingly and consciously embraced destruction and nihilism, free from any feelings of restraint, decent behaviour or common humanity.
Every large-scale riot I have examined in the past has had some sort of cause even if a bad or indefensible one. These riots have no cause at all except theft and destruction for its own sake.
We have all seen the pictures of an injured man, streaming blood, being robbed by people who pretended to be helping him. It would be interesting to know the influence of religion in the lives of those involved.
One senior churchman has stated: “Are we prepared to think not only about discipline in classrooms, but also about the content and ethos of our educational institutions – asking can we once again build a society which takes seriously the task of educating citizens, not consumers, not cogs in an economic system, but citizens?” Perhaps he should first address failures a little closer to home.
As a lawyer of 30 years’ experience and a journalist before that, I have met many criminals. Even the professionals – like the female shoplifters who pile their hair in chignons to hide items, or wear reversible coats with hidden pockets for ease of shoplifting, have often, under a mask of bravado, felt guilt, regret or shame.
The British rioters interviewed showed no trace of this. It is as if a whole community, or a large part of it, had become moral imbeciles.
It is easy to blame the political class for the appalling example they have set, as well as a culture, which glamorises “badness” and a rotten education system.
It would be interesting to know more about the rioters’ religious beliefs, if any.
One of the groups, which emerged with credit and manliness, were the Sikhs, hundreds of whom turned out to defend their temples. Were there Christians out defending Christian churches?