Riots...
- " ... Just last night, all over London places are aflame and some guy - some photographer - got a lovely picture of a rioter and he's standing there full of indignation with a stolen tape deck in either hand and he's irate. He says, 'I'm doing this because they call us criminals.' And so when people come out with that in real life, I hardly ever have to write." - Terry Pratchett
Someone asked me what I thought the cause of the riots in England lately were. I thought of the recent riots in Greece, and in Vancouver, and of the politically-motivated unrest in North Africa, and I thought: This is a volatile time.
I thought of three reasons:
- Climatic change. Globally, people are hotter (or colder) than they were; troubled by earthquakes, floods and famine. Even if the changes may appear slight wherever you happen to be, a few degrees difference without air conditioning or heat can make a lot of difference to one's temper.
- In the UK particularly, too many years - a generation, now? - of mostly right-wing government.
- Overpopulation. We're coping, but there are more people elbowing each other than ever before,too many people moving around, too many people in cities, too many haves and too many have-nots.
I don't think any of these problems are insurmountable, or even long-term. But they do make for unrest in the meanwhile.