Smiths

Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself

a few thoughts

My first image of a "riot" was a picture, depicted on the back of this album, and at a tender age I basically didn't have a clue what a "riot" was or involved.
Now this weeks events, started to ring bells, from what I saw on telly, I don't think i saw a riot, I saw looting and destruction. I am not gonna harp on about disengagement from society and lack of cohesion with one's community and alienation. I just wondered what these people actually thought about themselves as individuals, not as a collective, but as THEMSELVES. We are not bees, we all have thought's and minds of our own, and of course peer pressure is strong at a certain age, but we all do have a personal sense of right and wrong, and of course then you get into the psyche of the criminal mind and the boundaries of right & wrong, but this country isn't full of failures, we have talented people, artistic people, and obviously people who wish to express themselves. (Looting becoming the new X-Factor?). So try a bit of the old punk ethic (yes The Clash had CBS backing) but try a bit of Do It Yourself approach, be constructive, we don't want to lose the right to protest, we don't want a police state, all the tools are there, Crass used photocopys TODAY you have the internet! I'd like to see something positive come out of all of this, and not just a generation of people demanding consumer goods and designer gear, it'd be nice for fresh British talent to emerge again and not some talent show wannabes.
By the way, a few things i notice, riots/disturbances usually occur during summertime, and as one of the great british pastimes Cricket, rain stopped play, nature's very own water cannon. May have to forgoe my atheism for a short while.