Explanations & Riots Part 1

The Riots have troubled me. They've got into my dreams. They've dominated my conscious thinking. They've given me Apocalyptic shivers. They've made me fear that there is something fundamentally wrong with our society.

I have been equally troubled by the explanations people have found for them. They have frequently shown a viciousness and misanthropy that has matched that shown by the rioters themselves. Calls for violent measures seem, to me at least, to spring from the same core of frustration, discontent and unhappiness that is behind the rioters' behaviour.

Sorry to get a bit psychodynamic here but it's unavoidable: there appears to be a projection occuring; that is, we are seeing in the perpetrators of the crimes we are witnessing something of the rotteneness in our own hearts. Hence we call them 'evil'. We want to see them not as confused, morally muddled people like ourselves acting badly, but as entities who are totally evil. Once we establish that we can explores the joys of vengeance. Enter Arnie, Clint, or whoever to 'take them out' while we drool with delight. That'll teach 'em! Such a sentiment is probably the same as that of many of the rioters: We'll f.....g show you! or words to that effect probably went through their minds.


In Christian terms what I'm saying is 'He who is without sin cast the first stone'. I'm not a Christian but I greatly admire this saying by the great Rabbi, Yeshua, who is exhorting us to look into our own hearts before we mete out punishment. This approach, of course, has been comprehensively ignored throughout the history of Christendom.

I'm not [and I'm sick of labouring this kind of point] advocating 'being soft on crime'. What I'm saying is that before we proffer explanations, and explanations lead on to remedies including punishments, we need to look long and hard at ourselves.

I'm horrified by the rioting but I  can't say I'm surprised at it. Trouble has been simmering away in the background for years.

Before I go any further I apologise for adding my opinion to the 100 million opinions on this topic that have already been expressed in print, on blogs, in pubs, amongst friends and so on. 

I would also like to remind anyone who reads this that explanations are not justifications. Just because I try to understand why people riot does not mean that  I condone their actions. In fact I'd definitely fight back if my community was threatened.

What I am curious about is the mindset of the rioters. What is going on in their heads? How do they justify their actions? They no doubt do; they might not be educated but they are not stupid. How do they see the world they find themselves in?

These are uncomfortable questions for us all because we love to demonise others. It is one of the great dirty pleasures of being human. I do it myself. Three or four pints of beer and  I 'm saying all chavs/NOW reporters/social workers/traffic wardens/public school boys/fruit and veg traders/ local council officials/Daily Mail readers/Co-op Bank staff/psychiatrists/Jeremy Clarksons or whoever else has happened to upset me during the day should be shot, tortured, castrated, sent to live in Coalville, and worse. Ranting is such fun! No doubt a scientist will tell us 'research shows it activates the pleasure centres of the brain'. But scientists are just a bunch of f...g geeks aren't they?

Demonising is a process that is opposed to empathising. Empathising is what I'm talking about. What would be interesting would be to hear what rioters say about themselves and their actions. Of course this would not be popular, but it might help us to diagnose the sickness that afflicts our society.

Another note: empathy is not sympathy.

In the course of adult life I've talked to quite a lot of bad and mad people and have found it illuminating to discover their paranoid views of the universe, that is the real or imaginary entities that are their demons. These include Galactic conspirators, the Mekon, Muslims, anyone from Africa, Social Services, the Illuminati, the Marcone, Communists, Capitalists, Zionists, the Insect People, Irishmen...It's hard to distinguish the insane from the political and the religious.

Likewise with the rioting tribes: they will have a shared view of the world , they will have their demons. Knowing what these are will be help solve the problems we face collectively. We can guess what some of these are: the police, immigrants, the middle classes and so on. The rioters are part of the great stinking, sticky mass of discontent, anger, frustration, depression, envy, greed, that sits in the middle of our society, that we all contribute to. It needs to be dealt with before - and this is my great fear- it is exploited by political extremists. Check out history and be frightened.

Apologies if I sound like a vicar or an opinion column in the Independent.

Words of Wisdom

There's bucket loads of words of wisdom sloshing about. Just think of all the good advice given by traditional English proverbs with their silver clouds, sow's ears, long roads, cups, lips, cooks, pigs, cows, foxes, kings.. there's enough there to keep you going for the rest of your life. Then there's the religious texts: the Book of Proverbs, the Sayings of the Prophet, the Analects of Confucius, the Koans of Zen and so on. More recently there have been the modern mystics like Eckhart Tolle and Paul Coelho, Californian gurus, Shamans, neurologists, agony aunts, TV pundits, Jeremy Clarkson [sorry], management consultants, psychologists, NLP practitioners, complimentary therapists all deluging us with words of wisdom.

And there's me in my kitchen after  glass or two of wine pontificating. Fortunately what I say in such circumstances is not recorded by eager pupils of my wisdom. [ A nice little volume lost there: 'Harry Ashcroft's Table Talk'.] I'm no exception, of course, we all have this desire to pass on what we think of as wisdom. It's some kind innate urge: the oracular urge that adds yet more words to The Ocean of Wisdom.

What are we to do with all this stuff? How do we use it in real life?

If  I am in my hospital bed after an accident do I mutter to myself  through broken teeth, Every cloud has a silver lining? Do I put my trust in the Lord? Do I reflect on the 'lesson' that my suffering has granted? Do I say to myself Ah! The Buddha's First Nobel Truth! Suffering. Dukkha.  What do I do? How do I use this vast body of wisdom that's out there?

It seems to me that wisdom is cheap but life is hard.

And wisdom is much abused. It is used as a weapon by devious politicians, religious bigots, bogus gurus, oppressive parents, bullying bosses, sadistic teachers and such like.

Yet, undoubtably,  there is much that is good and true amongst all this material. How do we distinguish the sound from the spurious?

Incidentally I would like to point out that I am not asking these questions rhetorically. I am asking them in an open ended way hoping for some illumination. Hopefully not more words of wisdom but some real answers.

One issue is that words of wisdom are offered as self evident truths and are backed by authority, usually in the form of powerful partriarchs, or 'tradition'. This makes their examination problematic. Questioning them can thus stir up anxieties and make us feel vulnerable as we might enter unknown territory and, at most places and times, stir up accusations of heresy, political incorrectness, antisocial attitudes with all the consequences that  a real struggle to find some real wisdom might bring.

And are the words I've written themselves 'words of wisdom' just adding more confusion to the difficult business of being human?

There's the question of how things are said here. Are they said in a way that is pompous and pious or human and generous?

If I'm lying on my hospital bed and the Priest, or other important religious person, sits at my bedside and talks to me about  the need for patience how does that make me feel?  Patience is certainly something I'm going to be in need of but how is he [it's almost certainly a 'he'], the religious figure going to make me feel when he exhorts me to be patient?

So lots of questions. Any answers would be welcome. I'll be parking some of my own speculations on this blog over the next few weeks.