A letter for equality

We are all influenced by the distortions of the media. Recently I found myself affected by the reportage of the London riots. I've observed how so many have risen up in anger, some when influenced by the media, against the “underclass” that they feel is responsible for the damage. I have also witnessed recently how both media and politics have been colluding in serious corruption. The media is how we all keep informed of world events. Yet it now acts as the mouthpiece of politicians, and is biased by the ownership of the big businesses that own the world's media giants. It is important to remember that because of these biases in the media that the demonisation of the working class has always been inherent in U.K society and therefore our institutions. The government itself has waged financial and rhetorical war on the poorest parts of our society. Yet it this belief that the underclass is separate from us, our values and our way of life that has bred the calls for tougher punishment. We must view our society as one organism. If one area is sick we do not punish it, but heal it. The day we acknowledge that these behaviours are a a product of the society we have all created and take responsibility for the whole, will be the day that this “broken society” will be fixed.

The recent riots in London have got everyone talking. When the looting was at its peak I was sat on my computer with one eye on the BBC Riot update page and with one eye on the street below. I saw blazing fires and gangs of hooded youths on the screen, but just pigeons on my road. I wasn't in any danger, but when I witnessed the images on the screen it made me to start to panic. Not for long, but I really was in animal mode, considering the fight or flight implications of the progressing disorder in London, and the drastic actions I'd have to take if things got worse. I think it's fair to say that response was an overreaction. But the effect resonated with me. All the news we react to in the world is taken similarly out of context. Information is distorted by the interests of those with the power or influence. When the media flashes intense words and images at us we often forget what is reasonable in favour of a fearful reaction. So in reality what most people will remember about the riots, even millions of those who lived in the cities where they happened, is what the media told them about it.

Most people will have read the headline “CAMERON WAGES WAR ON GANGS” in the London Evening Standard on the 15^th August and that may be the most a proportion of people find out about him. This is because there are some people that don't engage with our media at all. The youtube clip of two girls in Tottenham drunk after a night out looting understandably shocked a lot of people, because they seemed to justify their actions as broadly attacking “the rich people” and Cameron himself. Amongst the chorus of cries from angered British voices there have been scathing attacks on the “mindlessness” of the “underclass” of society. Fundamentally we are sheep people - sheeple, and that is why companies and governments can so predictably measure our behaviour with market research, because they are the ones dictating it, no matter how subtlety. Which is why I'm bemused by the pure hatred and blame that has been labelled on this “class” of people, if that class exists at all. So if this group of people is the “mindless” it's what has bred that culture that we need to look at. We are all responsible for this society, the foundations of which we all willingly support and sustain through our subservience to it. So we must take responsibility for the conditions that have been created for all.

The information we're exposed to and the environment we're brought up in largely defines us. So when David Cameron uproars that the rioters were a segment of society that had lost it's “moral neutrality” and that he would subsequently concoct a “concerted, all-out war” on gangs and gang culture” declaring it to be part of a “criminal disease”. These are the sound bites that these people are then going to hear about their community. But they're not quite “mindless” as some have accused them of being because those that live in those poorest communities have adopted the mind of their environment.

I've witnessed first hand how violence breeds violence and compassion breeds compassion at either spectrum of this “broken society” Before I took my A-levels at an affluent middle class school I went to an inner-city comprehensive called Highbury Grove. As a white British boy I was in the minority in an environment filled with impoverished Londoners, who were largely made up of Black, Asian, Kurdish or Turkish refugees. Over half of the children at that school were diagnosed with learning disabilities. Many had witnessed devastating traumas in war or at home. I knew a lot of people with single mothers, and there were many cases where people had parents or carers addicted to heavy drugs, alcohol or involved in gangs. Many took drugs as it was the only path they'd been introduced to and dealing them became a way of preserving dignity and pride. It gave them their only known way out of the impoverished and violent environment they grew up in. For many years I didn't learn a single thing in many of my subjects because the anger and violence spiralled out of control. My art class was an understood battleground for the days fights, and we knew that the teacher would be too drunk to intervene with any enthusiasm. I, like many people at that school felt that society had left us behind. The adult world had let us down and provided us with no opportunities, so how could the adult world expect us to give back?

The reason many of these people appear “morally neutral” is because that is the world they've grown up in all their lives. When they see a society that teaches that wealth and Consumerism is the ultimate aspiration for a human being, they see themselves as the lowest in that hierarchy and see that they're worth nothing. The benefits culture is not one of entitlement but it is one of embattlement. Many of those in the “underclass” are people that are literally struggling for their survival and fight to meet their most basic needs. Yet the economic systems played by politicians encourages us to be financial climbers. The advertising and media industries then tells us it is our right to own certain products. So when there has been recent corruption between the media and the Government in the phone hacking scandals, Politicians have stolen our money for second homes and the Prime Minister responds to anger in poor areas by stating that “I want us to look at toughening up the conditions for those who are out of work and receiving benefits” is anyone really surprised that these people are broadly attacking the elites who actually have the money?

Is it “mindless” to acknowledge that society values only those with money and then largely puts the squeeze on those that have none? Was it mindless for the thousands of people who have seen their youth centres lost? Their benefits cut? Their policing sliced? Their areas uncared for and ravaged with generations of never ending trauma and alienation from society? These people do not live in dignity yet we are angry when they show no respect to the parts of the society where people have that basic dignity. In 2008/09 30 percent of children in the UK grew up in Poverty and people wonder why young poor children sometimes act anti-socially? It's because their collective society has acted anti socially towards them.

Huge groups of people at my secondary school saw themselves as soldiers, people that had to fight all their lives to survive and prosper. Surely if we remove the need for these groups to fight in order to receive their dignity we will discourage the destruction that so many have condemned? I witnessed so many people pre-occupied with this day to day struggle. The fact that over 50% of people from that school had learning disabilities was a problem just heavily exacerbated by poverty. The problem is our society is most fascinated by the winners, the celebrities, the rich and the powerful. As long as we have this culture of separation, we will always have those that are left behind. Yet as long as that happens the losers will be angry, neglected and ignorant to a way of life outside of survival.

We can all be ignorant, we may all be angry, but can we all really be that surprised?