Regulation that is insensitive to local conditions quickly starts to feel sinister Credit: Andy Barton/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty
Boris Johnson’s sunshiny “one more heave, chaps, the cavalry are coming” Covid message doesn’t seem to be landing very well. Perhaps he presumed that, with all that good news on the vaccine front, everyone would simply accept the logic of pretty much staying locked down until it arrives.
But this sense of an ending doesn’t seem to have done much to shore up discipline. If anything, it seems to be going the other way: anti-lockdown protests this weekend led to over 150 arrests, people are moving around much more in lockdown 2 than lockdown 1, and the political rebellion among Conservative MPs has gathered, rather than lost, momentum since the vaccine news. It looks like keeping up restrictions is going to become more difficult, not easier, as the end comes into view.
You can see why Tory MPs are worried. The map of areas still stuck in ‘tier 3’ lockdown restrictions, with pubs and restaurants shut, has echoes of the most Brexit-voting parts of the country: a new ‘red wall’ stretching from Lancashire in the North West across to Lincolnshire and the Wash, with a separate pocket of red in the Thames estuary and Kent. These are the voters most precious to the Government — fear of getting on the wrong side of them runs deep.
The Covid tiers can't go soon enough
What’s more, the latest polls are not offering much reassurance. We’ve become used to surveys showing overwhelming support for more restrictions, leading to the general assumption that ‘lockdown sceptics’ are little more than a small but vocal group on social media; Nigel Farage’s attempt to launch a new political party on the back of that passion has so far fallen flat.
But on the post-lockdown tier system, opinion is more divided — of four options offered by YouGov, the most popular at 33% is the view that too many areas are now being held in top tiers. More disconcertingly for the Tories, the dissenting group rises to 37% of Brexit voters (compared to 28% of Remainers) and 44% of voters in the all-important Midlands (compared to just 21% of Londoners). The voters who propelled them into office are the least happy.
What Tory MPs know (and not only the 70-odd rebels lined up by Steven Baker and Sir Graham Brady) is that there’s something about this whole approach that goes directly against what they were elected to do. As Editor of the Sheffield Star, Nancy Fielder, told Andrew Marr on Sunday, Tory MPs in the North “were elected around Brexit, which was all about freedom — we want to be able to do what we want to do ourselves without being dictated to — and look where we are now.” Brexit was a rebellion against control from the centre, against remote regulations set by faraway people in Whitehall or Brussels who aren’t interested in the details of your area — the Covid tiers have an unhappy whiff of the same hauteur.
The aggravation doesn’t stem from people being selfish or from behavioural fatigue so much as from the bluntness of the regulation. Even among those who are concerned about the virus and keen to be responsible, rules that are arbitrary and insensitive to local conditions quickly start feeling pointless and sinister; from there it is a short step to them feeling tyrannical.
Notes of absurdity are even more potent at destroying support. Think of how much energy the Brexit movement got from reports of EU regulations on “bendy bananas” — today’s elaborate one-way systems around half-empty garden centres and tiny designer Perspex vizers covering only the chins of waiters in restaurants are surely the new equivalents. You can imagine the mixture of hilarity and fury in the Kent village that has been divided down the middle between two tiers, so one of its pubs has to close but the other can remain open.
At heart, the flaw in the system is the continued adherence to a one-size-fits-all approach. A “traffic light” system of regional tiers may sound targeted and human at a No 10 press conference, but it doesn’t feel that way to the millions of people lumped together in Manchester or Kent, or to the 99% of the population still forbidden from seeing anybody inside during an English winter. As each MP knows, within each constituency, let alone county, there is a variety of urban and rural areas, and a range of different demographics — it’s a whole world, not a dot on a map. This is the central shortcoming of the lockdown movement — that you can force everyone in a hugely varied society to behave in the same way, by diktat.
This was never true, and particularly not for a threat like Covid that is so unusually targeted at a certain subset of the population: we all know people who are more- or less- cautious about Covid and have been all along for perfectly good reasons. Wise regulation would acknowledge this reality, and provide principles that people can apply to their unique circumstances. The Government will win their vote in parliament, but the anger will start to subside only when we move beyond universal life-rules controlled by the centre. The principle of different advice for different groups is already established: the proposal to ‘protect the vulnerable’ in the Great Barrington Declaration may have been rejected on the grounds of practical difficulty, but different ‘shielding’ advice was given early on to the particularly vulnerable and ministers insist that as soon as the most vulnerable are vaccinated, restrictions can begin to ease.
The Covid tiers can't go soon enough
So as we move through this difficult winter, with the new promise of a sunset clause on the Tiers system, perhaps the Government needs to switch up its metaphors: instead of traffic lights, which are notoriously frustrating and treat everyone the same, it might be better to start thinking about traffic lanes, which when functioning well on a motorway are a remarkably effective way for society to move safely along together.
A nationwide traffic lane system would allow people to choose at an individual or household level how to live: amber means you carry on as now, respecting regulations to a normal degree, red means you are additionally cautious because either you or your regular contacts are highly vulnerable, and green means either you have decided that the risk of contracting Covid is acceptable to you and you are personally not worried, or that you are now immune via prior infection or vaccination. Information about local virus levels and your own risk profile can help you choose your lane, and you can quarantine between lanes (which is already what the Government recommends to students coming home for Christmas). As long as you aren’t a threat to others, everyone can decide for themselves.
Rather than attempting to micro-manage the entire public square as a single space, which is the source of so much unhappiness, individual venues and events could be allowed to cater to different risk levels. Care homes and hospitals will obviously continue to operate on ‘red lane’ principles with the highest care, but supermarkets and shops could return to the excellent system where the first hour of the day is reserved for ‘red lane’ customers. Which system would you prefer, as a vulnerable elderly person — to be forced in, as now, among the noisy young people being cavalier about masks and bumping into you, or to be able to know that the newly-cleaned shop was open at limited capacity only to people taking proper care?
Pubs and restaurants could start to operate similarly — red lane on one day, amber for most of the week and green on Fridays and Saturdays when young people and the increasing number of immune and vaccinated can do as they please without being accused of being selfish. Transport could work on similar rush-hour principles, and even schools would be safer than they are now with a class or stream reserved for students who had genuinely vulnerable people at home, rather than pretending all schoolchildren obey distancing guidelines when quite obviously they don’t. If a venue or service cannot be modified safely in this way, it can remain in the amber lane — no change.
A post-lockdown regime along these lines could provide a route for the whole UK to offer better protection to the vulnerable as discipline starts to collapse, while providing safe outlets for the people who will break the rules anyway to live their lives without censure. Most of all it would reacquaint people with the ability to make decisions for themselves, and move beyond the local colouring-in exercise that is causing so much political tension.
Thinking along these lines will become only more important as vaccines start to be administered: if people are frustrated now, imagine how they will feel if they or their loved ones have had the vaccine and are still being asked to lead a half-life of distancing and not seeing anyone for months afterwards. There must eventually be a mechanism to release the vaccinated and the less vulnerable, while providing proper support for people who need to continue avoiding exposure. The sooner it gets moving, the better.
Freddie Sayers is the Editor-in-Chief & CEO of UnHerd. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of YouGov, and founder of PoliticsHome.
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SubscribeI disagree,what you describe sounds more like the product of careful organisation, and ruthless commitment. These aren’t lost boys, trying to fill their time by joyriding or hustling, but an organised, and combative minority moved by hatred for the civilisation that surrounds them.
Moreover, let’s not exaggerate the levels of poverty, this is not some third world country, France provides these rioters with a free education from day one, free health care, social benefits etc, that poor people in Asia of Africa could only dream about. If these communities are falling behind perhaps they should look more carefully at themselves and their cultural underpinnings and stop pointing the finger to the world.
I think the idea that this is all to do with there being “nothing decent on Netflix tonight” is absurd and Macrons steer in that narrative direction is nonsense.
He is being dismissive and disingenuous as he’s in trouble.
There’s always someone up for some chaos / punchup but France, and much of Europe, seems to be a cauldron of animosity about a variety of issues at the moment from immigration to complacency in high places (measured in decades).
I strongly agree with your assessment of the relative poverty and the huge advantages these “poor kids” have vis a vis their African, Asian and Latinoamerican counterparts. I just wonder whether the degree of insatisfaction tends to be more relative than absolute. I would think that the “poor french” compare themselves with the life of affluent european elites (which they see every day) not with third world’s.
Certainly, the degree of “insatisfaction” is heightened by the relatively new ability to see how the rest of the world lives, which is witnessed on a hand-held device 24/7/365. Never in human history was this possible. We are experiencing the repercussions of this massive change in real time. If we think this example of social upheaval is significant, just wait until malicious, AI-altered content begins to proliferate, if it hasn’t already. Better have some water and food stored up somewhere.
You have a good point.
However the question remains, why are these groups so prone to rioting and why are they trapped in this perpetual circle of impoverishment, economic stagnation etc. particularly when compared to other migrant groups like the French-Vietnamese for instance.
Certainly, the degree of “insatisfaction” is heightened by the relatively new ability to see how the rest of the world lives, which is witnessed on a hand-held device 24/7/365. Never in human history was this possible. We are experiencing the repercussions of this massive change in real time. If we think this example of social upheaval is significant, just wait until malicious, AI-altered content begins to proliferate, if it hasn’t already. Better have some water and food stored up somewhere.
You have a good point.
However the question remains, why are these groups so prone to rioting and why are they trapped in this perpetual circle of impoverishment, economic stagnation etc. particularly when compared to other migrant groups like the French-Vietnamese for instance.
I think the idea that this is all to do with there being “nothing decent on Netflix tonight” is absurd and Macrons steer in that narrative direction is nonsense.
He is being dismissive and disingenuous as he’s in trouble.
There’s always someone up for some chaos / punchup but France, and much of Europe, seems to be a cauldron of animosity about a variety of issues at the moment from immigration to complacency in high places (measured in decades).
I strongly agree with your assessment of the relative poverty and the huge advantages these “poor kids” have vis a vis their African, Asian and Latinoamerican counterparts. I just wonder whether the degree of insatisfaction tends to be more relative than absolute. I would think that the “poor french” compare themselves with the life of affluent european elites (which they see every day) not with third world’s.
I disagree,what you describe sounds more like the product of careful organisation, and ruthless commitment. These aren’t lost boys, trying to fill their time by joyriding or hustling, but an organised, and combative minority moved by hatred for the civilisation that surrounds them.
Moreover, let’s not exaggerate the levels of poverty, this is not some third world country, France provides these rioters with a free education from day one, free health care, social benefits etc, that poor people in Asia of Africa could only dream about. If these communities are falling behind perhaps they should look more carefully at themselves and their cultural underpinnings and stop pointing the finger to the world.
Britain showed how to deal with this situation after the riots in 2011: eye-watering sentences for everyone captured in the act of rioting or looting. Courts held 24 hour sessions to get through the cases. Bail denied in almost all cases. 4000 people were prosecuted, 900 got prison sentences.
Including this one:
Crime rates dropped year-on-year for the next 4 years as a good portion of all of Britain’s delinquents were doing time or were on a suspended sentence.
The public was well satisfied with the justice system for once.
Britain showed how to deal with this situation after the riots in 2011: eye-watering sentences for everyone captured in the act of rioting or looting. Courts held 24 hour sessions to get through the cases. Bail denied in almost all cases. 4000 people were prosecuted, 900 got prison sentences.
Including this one:
Crime rates dropped year-on-year for the next 4 years as a good portion of all of Britain’s delinquents were doing time or were on a suspended sentence.
The public was well satisfied with the justice system for once.
One thing that is carefully not mentioned is the ethnicity of the rioters. The current official propaganda that the original Europeans are responsible for many of the ills of the world through racism, colonialism and excessive consumption is inherently likely to make youth disaffected and happy to loot businesses and state organisations.when they have an excuse. No doubt the increasing reluctance to sentence the young to harsh punishment also encourages gangs to employ/encourage the young co commit most of the public offences.
Rioting is clearly not a reasonable response to police violence and prejudice as it alienates the public who might otherwise press more vigorously for the police to be reigned in in the light of the evidence provided by the video recordings of the incident that sparked the unrest.
One thing that is carefully not mentioned is the ethnicity of the rioters. The current official propaganda that the original Europeans are responsible for many of the ills of the world through racism, colonialism and excessive consumption is inherently likely to make youth disaffected and happy to loot businesses and state organisations.when they have an excuse. No doubt the increasing reluctance to sentence the young to harsh punishment also encourages gangs to employ/encourage the young co commit most of the public offences.
Rioting is clearly not a reasonable response to police violence and prejudice as it alienates the public who might otherwise press more vigorously for the police to be reigned in in the light of the evidence provided by the video recordings of the incident that sparked the unrest.
Sounds like organized criminal gangs to me.
Sounds like organized criminal gangs to me.
I greatly admire Anne-Elisabeth Moutet’s writing, but in this piece, the content does not appear to support the title “French rioters are bored kids”. The content suggests that, far from being bored, they have been busy preparing for this. France has a very low rate of killings by the police: one every two weeks. So they would not have long to wait.
A more convincing explanation is that the groups doing the rioting are flexing their muscles to intimidate whimp politicians such as Macron.
Agreed. They have learned how gullible politicians can be from the BLM
riotsprotests that garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in de-facto reparations from corporations and other useful idiots.Agreed. They have learned how gullible politicians can be from the BLM
riotsprotests that garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in de-facto reparations from corporations and other useful idiots.I greatly admire Anne-Elisabeth Moutet’s writing, but in this piece, the content does not appear to support the title “French rioters are bored kids”. The content suggests that, far from being bored, they have been busy preparing for this. France has a very low rate of killings by the police: one every two weeks. So they would not have long to wait.
A more convincing explanation is that the groups doing the rioting are flexing their muscles to intimidate whimp politicians such as Macron.
The good news is that riots only come in warm, dry weather.
Will the violence increase with ‘climate change’?
As any change in weather is evidence of climate change more bad weather might reduce riots. Welcome to a post-evidence world.
Let’s hope ‘climate change ‘ agitation restricts itself to throwing orange confetti around tennis courts in south west London
As any change in weather is evidence of climate change more bad weather might reduce riots. Welcome to a post-evidence world.
Let’s hope ‘climate change ‘ agitation restricts itself to throwing orange confetti around tennis courts in south west London
A police officer friend once told me that crime noticeably decreases at temperatures below 38 deg F…….
Will the violence increase with ‘climate change’?
A police officer friend once told me that crime noticeably decreases at temperatures below 38 deg F…….
The good news is that riots only come in warm, dry weather.
I still don’t see any mention of how many of these kids come from homes with absent fathers. Am IP allowed to say that lol. But single Mums cannot raise boys as they do not understand how to manage them.
I think you have to say “absentee non-birthing parent” these days, if you wish to retain banking facilities, that is.
I think you have to say “absentee non-birthing parent” these days, if you wish to retain banking facilities, that is.
I still don’t see any mention of how many of these kids come from homes with absent fathers. Am IP allowed to say that lol. But single Mums cannot raise boys as they do not understand how to manage them.
The writer, like most of her kind show no experience of living in these areas. The question which is vital is ” How many of the looters are children of Islamicists who participated in the Algerian Civil War of 1991 to 2002 ?”.
Algerian Civil War – Wikipedia
The degree of planning suggest that those experienced in subversion are at work. If one looks at the riots in N Ireland they were very precisely organised by the PIRA.Yes there is anger but an angry mob shows no coherence.
A Nigerian friend said there were some whites associated with Trotskyist groups who had been stirring up trouble in Brixton in 1981 who disappeared just before the riots errupted.
I would suggest there is a gap in intelligence gathering between the Police and the security services when obtaining information on these riots. Various political groups work on existing grievances and when an incident such as this shooting occurs are able to mobilise rioter within seconds. The rioters will probably not know they are being manipulated by others for their purposes.
The authorities either need to recruit people living in these areas or people who can move into them and become part of landscape. These areas develop a universal mind and in order to perceive what is likely to occur one needs to be able to tap into it which can only be achieved by living in the midst and connecting. Middle class, especially whites can live in an area and because they never connect to the ” Area Mind ” are completely oblivious to the undercurrents. An analogy is the ability to look at the sea and see the fast and slow currents, changes in directions of the currents, shoals, reefs, sand banks, feel the changes in wind direction, temperature , pressure, look at the clouds, etc an perceive when it is safe and danger is close by.
“If one looks at the riots in N Ireland they were very precisely organised by the PIRA”
Occasionally, of course – but very often not. My mates from W Belfast (the ‘Bone Estate etc) at law college in QUB with me in the 80s used to reminisce fondly about “being out stoning / petrol-bombing the Peelers / Brits” at weekends – it was, if you like, paintballing with an edge lol. Not directed by the ‘RA at all in many cases, simply indulged in for laughs.
I remember once someone in Belfast, some good, kind, well-meaning middle-class soul (as clueless as the folk you refer to re having an “area mind”), tried to run go-karting lessons for joyriders, reasoning that the kids obviously were keen drivers who merely needed an outlet. Of course, take-up was lamentably low. The joyriding kids had limited / no interest in motorsport. No amount of high-speed jinks around a racetrack could ever hold a candle to the sheer adrenalin of possibly being shot dead by the army in hot pursuit.
The over-intellectualisation of the Troubles by earnest middle-class outsiders was a minor personal bugbear of mine for decades. Middle class know-alls in South Dublin and in the Home Counties foisting their undergrad theories onto us etc. Utter nonsense in most cases.
Sometimes, things are as straightforward as they seem …
I accept what you say about much of N Ireland but you are ignoring the Algerian Civil War.Some Algerians ended up, at Finsbury Mosque. It would be interested to compare attitude to France of those Algerians who entered pre 1991 and post 2002. The Islamicists in Algeria were fighting secular socialist pro USSR arabs who governed Algeria which has resulted in them being against most of the values of republican France, especially laicite.
THE SUICIDE FACTORY: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque: Amazon.co.uk: O’Neill: 9780007234691: Books
I accept what you say about much of N Ireland but you are ignoring the Algerian Civil War.Some Algerians ended up, at Finsbury Mosque. It would be interested to compare attitude to France of those Algerians who entered pre 1991 and post 2002. The Islamicists in Algeria were fighting secular socialist pro USSR arabs who governed Algeria which has resulted in them being against most of the values of republican France, especially laicite.
THE SUICIDE FACTORY: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque: Amazon.co.uk: O’Neill: 9780007234691: Books
“If one looks at the riots in N Ireland they were very precisely organised by the PIRA”
Occasionally, of course – but very often not. My mates from W Belfast (the ‘Bone Estate etc) at law college in QUB with me in the 80s used to reminisce fondly about “being out stoning / petrol-bombing the Peelers / Brits” at weekends – it was, if you like, paintballing with an edge lol. Not directed by the ‘RA at all in many cases, simply indulged in for laughs.
I remember once someone in Belfast, some good, kind, well-meaning middle-class soul (as clueless as the folk you refer to re having an “area mind”), tried to run go-karting lessons for joyriders, reasoning that the kids obviously were keen drivers who merely needed an outlet. Of course, take-up was lamentably low. The joyriding kids had limited / no interest in motorsport. No amount of high-speed jinks around a racetrack could ever hold a candle to the sheer adrenalin of possibly being shot dead by the army in hot pursuit.
The over-intellectualisation of the Troubles by earnest middle-class outsiders was a minor personal bugbear of mine for decades. Middle class know-alls in South Dublin and in the Home Counties foisting their undergrad theories onto us etc. Utter nonsense in most cases.
Sometimes, things are as straightforward as they seem …
The writer, like most of her kind show no experience of living in these areas. The question which is vital is ” How many of the looters are children of Islamicists who participated in the Algerian Civil War of 1991 to 2002 ?”.
Algerian Civil War – Wikipedia
The degree of planning suggest that those experienced in subversion are at work. If one looks at the riots in N Ireland they were very precisely organised by the PIRA.Yes there is anger but an angry mob shows no coherence.
A Nigerian friend said there were some whites associated with Trotskyist groups who had been stirring up trouble in Brixton in 1981 who disappeared just before the riots errupted.
I would suggest there is a gap in intelligence gathering between the Police and the security services when obtaining information on these riots. Various political groups work on existing grievances and when an incident such as this shooting occurs are able to mobilise rioter within seconds. The rioters will probably not know they are being manipulated by others for their purposes.
The authorities either need to recruit people living in these areas or people who can move into them and become part of landscape. These areas develop a universal mind and in order to perceive what is likely to occur one needs to be able to tap into it which can only be achieved by living in the midst and connecting. Middle class, especially whites can live in an area and because they never connect to the ” Area Mind ” are completely oblivious to the undercurrents. An analogy is the ability to look at the sea and see the fast and slow currents, changes in directions of the currents, shoals, reefs, sand banks, feel the changes in wind direction, temperature , pressure, look at the clouds, etc an perceive when it is safe and danger is close by.
If we are going to guess ‘reasons’ for the rioting how about a behavioural rebound from lockdown? Or does that cut too close to the narrative that the Powers That Be maintain?
Oh ffs, stop riding your high horse. You reckon those yahoos paid any attention to so-called “lockdowns”, or had jobs to go to in the first place?
Oh ffs, stop riding your high horse. You reckon those yahoos paid any attention to so-called “lockdowns”, or had jobs to go to in the first place?
If we are going to guess ‘reasons’ for the rioting how about a behavioural rebound from lockdown? Or does that cut too close to the narrative that the Powers That Be maintain?
In the USA, every summer some city is set on fire by ‘bored kids’. It’s happens like clock-work.
In the USA, every summer some city is set on fire by ‘bored kids’. It’s happens like clock-work.
These riots reminds me of the riots in Portland and Seattle. Violence for no gain.
I wouldn’t go that far – a lot of them seemed to be more interested in ‘shopping’
I believe the “correct” terminology is protests. Riots is a term reserved for lite beer drinking, overweight, old men who storm capitol buildings in major U.S. cities.
I wouldn’t go that far – a lot of them seemed to be more interested in ‘shopping’
I believe the “correct” terminology is protests. Riots is a term reserved for lite beer drinking, overweight, old men who storm capitol buildings in major U.S. cities.
These riots reminds me of the riots in Portland and Seattle. Violence for no gain.
Here in the US most ethnic groups migrating to the cities have started out with gangs: Irish, Jews, Italians. And then, of course blacks. Now Salvadorians with their MS-13.
Why should France be any different?
Even if one accepts what you say (and I don’t) this goes way past gang violence, which, lets be honest, was mostly confined to internecine violence. This is orchestrated, wide-spead, and aimed at people who have nothing to do with any internal machinations of any particular group.
What about Indian Hindus? Not many riots in Silicon valley.
Irish, Jews, Italians and other gangsters never really doubted the ‘American way of life’, in many respects their first and foremost desire was to become a part of mainstream society albeit by engaging in shady and illegal practices. Put otherwise mafias never question the powers that be, sometimes they work with them, and other times they try to circumvent them, but they never question their usefulness or pretend that they have any other aspiration than making money.
What we see in France on the other hand is a blend of political and criminal insurgencies whose purpose is much more sinister and far reaching than smashing a few cars or stealing stereos.
Even if one accepts what you say (and I don’t) this goes way past gang violence, which, lets be honest, was mostly confined to internecine violence. This is orchestrated, wide-spead, and aimed at people who have nothing to do with any internal machinations of any particular group.
What about Indian Hindus? Not many riots in Silicon valley.
Irish, Jews, Italians and other gangsters never really doubted the ‘American way of life’, in many respects their first and foremost desire was to become a part of mainstream society albeit by engaging in shady and illegal practices. Put otherwise mafias never question the powers that be, sometimes they work with them, and other times they try to circumvent them, but they never question their usefulness or pretend that they have any other aspiration than making money.
What we see in France on the other hand is a blend of political and criminal insurgencies whose purpose is much more sinister and far reaching than smashing a few cars or stealing stereos.
Here in the US most ethnic groups migrating to the cities have started out with gangs: Irish, Jews, Italians. And then, of course blacks. Now Salvadorians with their MS-13.
Why should France be any different?
Even though any details about the demo, psychographic composition of the rioters (E.g., peaceful protesters in America) is not included, I can conjecture that the heart of the matter for most is the need to vent their existential angst: a deep agitation and anger of having been abandoned to godless humanism, relativism, socialism by adults… but especially parents. “Venting” in this way is directed inwardly by means of self-harm, and outwardly by any means possible. Akin so many places on the planet — not the least of which in America — younger generations have been set adrift. Having sown the wind, the whirlwind is taking on many forms… our once-cherished youth being the first on the frontline of carnage.
Only those who survive being aborted, however.
Wow. That’s depressing. Sounds like my neighborhood.
Only those who survive being aborted, however.
Wow. That’s depressing. Sounds like my neighborhood.
Even though any details about the demo, psychographic composition of the rioters (E.g., peaceful protesters in America) is not included, I can conjecture that the heart of the matter for most is the need to vent their existential angst: a deep agitation and anger of having been abandoned to godless humanism, relativism, socialism by adults… but especially parents. “Venting” in this way is directed inwardly by means of self-harm, and outwardly by any means possible. Akin so many places on the planet — not the least of which in America — younger generations have been set adrift. Having sown the wind, the whirlwind is taking on many forms… our once-cherished youth being the first on the frontline of carnage.