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.
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