With all the rioting that’s been going on recently, I was prompted to write this article about one word which can be seen as part of both the cause and the solution to the problem. What’s that one word..?
A riot broke out on Saturday night in Tottenham in North London. That was an aftermath of a shooting incident involving the police. On Sunday the rioting spread to areas near by, and by Monday night there were riots and fires in many different parts of London, and other cities across England.
Many causes and solutions being discussed, and here’s that one word I think can be found at the centre of it all…
Responsibility.
Particularly on Facebook I have seen lots of people saying the blame for the riots lies with the police. As the riots spread, the blame switched to the government for cutbacks which have supposedly led to not enough police being around.
The original riot in Tottenham was sparked by a police involved shooting. That is still being investigated, and the facts surrounding that incident are not fully known.
The area has a history of bad relations between police and sections of the community, so it didn’t taker much to tip a crowd going to the police station into a violent incident.
What happens then is that other people get involved. In all probability they have no idea what the original issue was, they just like to be involved in trouble. If they can get to throw stones at the police, they will turn up and do just that.
It doesn’t take long for that to turn into looting and vandalism, including arson. The police and politicians are right to call these copycat actions ‘pure criminality’.
People are causing destruction and stealing, simply because they can and because they see nothing wrong with it.
Here’s where responsibility comes in.
I see clips of people outside a burning store discussing what they can grab. One can clearly be heard saying ’let’s get some watches’. I would never remotely consider going into a store and stealing watches.
Why? Well because it’s wrong, simple.
These people causing the trouble have no sense of personal responsibility, they have a ‘take, take, take’ mentality, with little or no consideration for others. If someone burnt their house to the ground they would be first to shout that they need help from the police and government, but because it’s someone else’s house or business, the concept of responsibility doesn’t register to them.
I’ve written for many years about the consequence of bad education, and responsibility is not taught well enough. The ideas of self determination, independent thought, self esteem, none of these are adequately covered.
I was lucky to have a good education, but looking back I can’t really remember a deep investigation into these areas.
Ok, so a bad education is the cause, right?
Well, not on its own, no.
Something else I’ve written a lot about is self education. Particularly with the rise of the internet, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop anyone self educating as an adult.
That’s where responsibility comes in as the solution. Education about taking responsibility and having respect for others can be done by anyone. Doing what’s right may not be popular with peer groups, but that’s no reason not to do it.
The blame for this rioting lies with each individual that picks up a brick, that lights a match, that throws a punch. The responsibility is theirs.
If you ask then why they are doing it, the response will be along the lines of ‘for a laugh’ or simply ‘dunno’. Yes, that’s an bad reflection of poor education, but they do need to face consequence for their actions, and realise that they can take responsibility for themselves, have some self esteem, put down the brick and go home.
It really is shocking to see this going on, but as the blame game starts to pick up pace, let’s not forget that one word I see at the centre of it all – responsibility.
