“The desire of food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniencies and ornaments of building, dress, equipage, and household furniture, seems to have no limit or certain boundary.” – Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776
In the wake of widespread rioting, looting and vandalism, the question in the media is “Why?” There’s no clear political motivation or focus to it. There’s a lot of pointing and wagging of fingers, comments about the wealth divide (chasm) and immigration causing disaffection and socio-economic apathy among the youth.
There are accusations that it’s economic policy, cuts and the dismal international financial outlook that caused this. But the truth is far simpler: this is caused primarliy by boredom, but also by instant gratification and consumerism.
We live, in the developed world, in a highly materialist society, that judges value and success in material and monetary terms. We pretty much always have – see Adam Smith’s comment above.
And it doesn’t help that we glamourise and romanticise criminals, pirates and outlaws in our popular fiction. We’ve forgotten that an outlaw once meant someone truly outside the law – legally dead and without any rights.
In the current economic climate, there are a lot of young people out of school, out of work, out of cash and Bored. For them, civil disobedience and the idea of something for nothing is an appealing change of pace. It’s Freud’s Id unleashed: see= want= take= have, and it continues because there’s no fulfilment in the new possession. People are posting pictures of themselves to the web, with all their loot displayed – which may be criminally stupid, but speaks to a need for attention and affirmation – look at the things I now have, and see me as successful.
If we didn’t place, as a society, such an emphasis on conspicuous material wealth as indicative of success and value, perhaps the wave of looting and destruction across the UK
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