Riots in Great Britain - Smoke or Smokescreen!
Events taking place in a far-away land which all we know to be the United Kingdom have baffled politicians, the governments, sociologists and psychologists all over the world. The TV scary footages of thousands of marauding brigades consisting of a motley group of people of varying ages and sex indulging in one of worst cases of looting and arson. The locales of these most shameful events were London, Birmingham and a few others cities of that country. The Britishers and the Western world never lose a single opportunity to put us on the mat on riots breaking out in our part of the globe. Now the wheel has, indeed, turned full circle. We , Indians, all know communal violence and riots which have their roots in gross ignorance, illiteracy and communal politics propagated and practiced by some political parties. But the one which the UK experienced this month did not fall into a known category. These cases of riots were neither political nor racists. So it is necessary to delve into the causes of this social phenomenon.
Looking back at these events the British Government response to the early stages of events was most inept, insensitive and condemnable. This is one of the glaring instances where much-famed British intelligence completely failed to gather any information about these civil disturbances on such a massive scale which could not have been perpetrated without meticulous planning and almost flawless execution. What London - the pride of all Britishers - witnessed in the course of a few days, was nothing short of administrative paralysis! The British Prime Minister had to cut short his foreign trip to rush back to the capital to take care of this unprecedented national crisis!
The United Kingdom faced many a crisis in the last 35 years including Falklands war, terrorists attacks, industrial unrest involving miners' strike in the middle of 80's but the civil disturbances taking place in the form of riots, arson and all would surely go down in the pages of British history as one of weirdest happenings in that country mainly because these had no precedents with none in the government any idea about their origin and their possible ramifications on the British society as a whole. Even the British intelligentsia are divided and confused over the outbreaks of vicious violence which ran completely against whatever that is proudly claimed to be British! While there are are as many opinions as various sections of British society like the press, politicians, psychologist and sociologist, the British Prime Minister would straightaway attribute them to what he calls 'a moral collapse'! Some of the offenders as the subsequent police investigation revealed, belonged to affluent sections of the country and these people had no qualms in joining the rioting brigades in smashing glasses of malls and escaping with their loots. Perhaps the British PM was not far off the mark when he pointed to a kind moral bankruptcy on the part of a certain section of his people who were benumbed at that point of time by their greed and selfishness and shamelessly reduced themselves into despicable bunch of lumpen!
Some sociologists point to a few more worrying aspects of British life today which bear chilling resemblance to the conduct of a certain section of our youth in India. The riotous behavior attracted participation from all segments of British society irrespective of economic status or even age! Some psychologists hold that increasing consumerism and parental failures in shaping up the moral characters of their wards may be the prime motivating factors contributing to such wanton conduct. Here we have a generation growing up in a culture which values materialistic possessions and success or failure - all is measured in terms of it. If your friend has an expensive, cool mobile set that sets off the trigger in you to have it - by fair means or foul! It is shocking to note that things reportedly looted were not essential items of food but expensive electronic gadgets! And the offenders formed a motley group of people who have university degrees, school drop-outs, young and old! It is also noteworthy that in some of the earlier disturbances which had racial overtones the Asian population in the UK came into the picture in a big way but it is not so this time.
The picture that emerges from the cross-section views can hardly be very comforting for the people of that country. A few generations fed on State benefits are living without any work . The British economy has been struggling to create jobs with inflation as high as ever. The British family value system which revolved around stability, responsibility, love and morality have been disappearing very fast from British life. These riots may not be just interpreted as cases of common civil disturbances but symptomatic of a far deeper ailment afflicting Great Britain!
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.