Prime Minister David Cameron was on vacation while parts of London burned.  After a few days, he decided to make an appearance.

England’s leaders and members of the media have called the uprising in several poor communities in London “mindless”.  Condemning atrocious acts as “mindless” is a way of totally discrediting the other party’s humanity.  It makes the person that much easier to dismiss.  To say “This act was mindless” is to say there was no cause worth caring about.  The very laws of science tell us that for an effect, there must be a cause.  So this approach is to so belittle that cause as to deem it irrelevant.  But look what that does!  Like Krusty the Clown likes to say “Don’t blame me, I didn’t do it!”

The people who argue this are usually the ones at fault.

I pointed out the insanity of ignoring the cause while only punishing the effect earlier.  Since then, I’ve read a very good article by a Londoner that you really ought to read.  But the surprising thing in all of this was the stunning silence on the cause from leadership.  Among those that did speak, they wanted to sweep it under the rug and reassure the people that they would bring safety.  Hence, quotes about petty criminals, thuggery, and “mindless” misbehavior.  Absolute safety is an impossible promise made to whitewash events; an attempt to scrub away mutual culpability for what we have at the moment: a leadership that is so clearly out of touch from its people, a media class that refuses any responsibility for influencing events, an economic class that shows little respect for long-term health of the multitudes, and an ever-expanding poverty class that has shrinking influence in the “legal” channels.  The better question is how did this not happen sooner?

Even though these events started nearly a week ago, the queen has made no public statement.  Neither has the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.  Only today has the Archbishop of Canterbury made a public statement.  Otherwise, crickets.  Mark Harris wrote about this on Tuesday.

The poor and disenfranchised pay the price for the excess of the wealthy.  Economics isn’t a sliding scale with only a finite amount of money, but the monied elites have made gains directly off of the backs of the poor for years now, and the widening gap has reached a pressure point.  Without proof that this arrangement is being fixed, there is no hope for lasting civility in London.

So what are we going to learn from this?

If we’re smart, we’ll bone up on our game theory and brush up on the prisoner’s dilemma.  We’ll listen to everyone and come up with a solution that benefits all, not only the most, and certainly not just the few.  All.  We’ll have a frank, public discussion about how we move forward from here.  We’ll treat everybody with respect.

But we’re not smart.  And I hold out little hope that any of this will happen.  Because up to now, the response has been, well…mindless.

Related articles

• Riot-hit retailers thrown ‘lifeline’ by David Cameron (telegraph.co.uk)
• UK riots: Big Brother isn’t watching you (guardian.co.uk)
• Nothing ‘mindless’ about rioters (hahayourefunny.wordpress.com)