Monday 8 August 2011

Not so much panic on the streets of London, more total fucking madness.

"Lock your doors, stay in your homes and please don't try to go outside."

The sentence would slot nicely into the dialogue of some low budget zombie movie. But to hear it coming out of my TV? Into my lounge? On the real life news? I never thought it would happen. Unless you've been hibernating, you will have seen the positively apocolyptic coverage of the London riots. As the dust settles and the innocent people scramble to salvage the remaining shreds of the normal lives they were leading this time last week, there are going to be a lot of questions that need answering. Like, who did this? And why? Where did all the anger come from? What were they trying to prove? I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't buy that there was some political undertone to this twenty-first century version of the lunatics taking over the asylum. I get it, I really do. People are angry. The country is in a state, and someone needs to step up and take the blame. But this? Completely unconnected. This is just mindless. These kids, they're not looting Debenhams to teach the government a lesson. They're doing it because they can. They don't know why their angry any more than we do. It's this pack mentality - 'if enough of us do it, we won't get caught.' So what,what exactly have you done? Destroyed your own captial city? Burned down your own houses? Smashed the shops that you buy your food from? Wake up, London. This isn't 'sticking it to the police', this is shitting on your own doorstep personified. If you've got something to say, fine. But what's so wrong with saying it peacefully? It doesn't make you weak, it makes you smart. After all, who wants to help out the boy in a balaclava weilding a baseball bat, or the girl throwing fireworks at cars? I can't help but think of what a waste this is. If only we could unite to do something positive.

Oh, and David? Make sure you stop off at the duty free on the way home. You're gonna need a drink when you see the state of the country you apparently run.

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