Culture:
After the Fires
The scenes of riots this summer were disturbing for
a number of reasons, not least because the driving
factor behind them appeared to be greed...
Summer, 2011. A teenager, encased in a
hood/mask combo to hide his identity,
carries a large HD television above his
head. He (we assume it’s a he) has
ripped it from the shelf of an electrical
store, as confirmed by the futile ringing
of an alarm behind him. Calmly he
carries the TV away, as scores of other
looters pour in to the store to follow
suit. This scene is no isolated incident;
it repeats, dozens of times over, across
London, and in a handful of other
towns and cities around England.
That picture – of the young thug
carrying off expensive stolen goods –
became the symbol of August’s
disturbing wave of violence and theft.
So where truly does the problem lie in
that image? In the weeks following the
riots, the finger was pointed at the
teenager – at his greed, at his lack of
morality, at the inability of his parents
to raise him properly. Peter Hitchens,
writing in the Daily Mail,
described the scene at a
courtroom a few days
later with the words:
‘their defence lawyers
read out the usual
garbage about how this
or that loping, chippy
troll is turning his life
round, is in the midst of a
hairdressing course or has
responded well to youth
workers’.
Consumerism Riots
Back to the picture I’ve described: I
don’t believe that the problem is with
the young person; at least, not entirely. I
believe that a large part of the problem
is represented by the HD television he’s
carrying. Regular readers of this
column might have a sense of déjà vu at
that point. I wrote two
months ago of Western
culture’s obsession with
gluttonous consumerism,
and it is this trend which
fuelled the summer riots.
Aside from the initial
clashes which kickstarted
events (around the
killing by police of
suspect Mark Duggan),
these weren’t even violent
protests. For a few days, England was
simply in the grip of a craze for violent
theft; this wasn’t about the pursuit of
justice or even anarchy, but the pursuit
of things. When the ‘Arab Spring’ saw
young people take to the streets of
Egypt, Libya and Bahrain, they
marched for freedom and a better
future. In London, Manchester and
Birmingham, they rioted for MP3
players and Gucci shoes.
What was driving that behaviour?
Not ideology, but opportunism. Not
anger, but greed. These people, many of
them undeniably teenagers and even
children, saw a chance to acquire more
‘stuff’. In historical terms, they were
perhaps the most depressing riots ever
seen; the consumerism riots. Only in a
culture that has a seriously twisted
perspective on material things could
such a thing take place.
The Dream
Successive governments have talked
about the importance of ‘citizenship’
education: raising good young
participants in British life. Yet the
nature of our culture means that what
that really equates to is growing young
consumers. Though I may be coming
over like a
Socialist Worker columnist
here, the truth is that the whole of our
society is set up around the spending of
money and the possessing of things.
The dominant orthodoxy in capitalist
economics suggests (quite
nonsensically) that businesses and
nations can grow year after year
ad
infinitum, and requires that we all
spend more money on more things this
year than we did last. So as we raise
young people, we give them aspirations
to earn (giving them ambitions of
highly paid jobs), and aspirations to
spend (my daughter, at age 3, is already
seen in terms of being a ‘target market’
for consumer goods – in her case,
plastic ponies).
This is what British society has
given young people to live for; this is
the dream – to earn and spend money.
And so when a recession hits, when
grants and benefits are cut and
cancelled, where the credit that was
previously offered so freely is now
suddenly scarce, what is the implication
for those young people?
A Role to Play
I am not suggesting that consumerism is
the only factor in play. Of course
unemployment, upbringing, gang
involvement and hundreds of other
factors are relevant here. Yet as we seek
to prevent such events from happening
again, as we look for positive, proactive
approaches to engaging with young
people as a society and as a Church,
this point is crucial.
Britain’s young people need new
dreams; something else to aim for
which isn’t about financial reward or
material gain. This, of course, is where
the Church comes in – we actually do
have something to offer; a picture that
is bigger than ourselves. When we’re at
our best, we stand for community,
peace, transformation and regeneration.
We offer what Barack Obama termed
the audacity of hope – the idea that
tomorrow might be brighter, even
though to the rest of the world it seems
bleaker.
Practically, what does that look
like? Employing youth workers and
releasing them beyond the borders of
our churches is important, as is
supporting the work of front line
Christian youth initiatives such as XLP
and The Message Trust. For all of us,
though, whether we have a hands-on
interest in youth work or not, there is a
role to play. The old African proverb
holds that ‘it takes a village to raise a
child’, and there is a vital place for
every Christian – whatever their age or
level of connection with teenagers – in
raising the teenagers in their
community. That might range from
praying for them, to offering to act as a
mentor, to financially supporting the
hands-on youth work of others. But
unless we take young
people seriously, not just as
a generation lost to the
Church but also to society
as a whole, then we will
doubtless see August’s sad
scenes replayed in steady
recurring waves.
A Big Challenge
Moreover, if the Church is
truly going to talk to young
people about aspirations
beyond the financial, then there is
another huge implication. We must put
our money where our mouth is. It is not
enough to say that we do not value
material things; we have to demonstrate
that this is an authentic belief. That’s
potentially a big challenge for a Church
where growing, ‘successful’
congregations are often those with
consumer-friendly worship and
teaching, impressive new building
projects and a healthy bank balance. As
the people who claim to have
something else to live for, the Church
Martin Saunders is an author, screenwriter
and editor of Youthwork magazine. Follow
him at twitter.com/martinsaunders
cannot become known as builders of
‘financial security’. We need to be
known for our generosity, for sharing,
like that Church in Acts 2, so that no
one went without.
Two-way Street
After a heavy police presence was
realised, and fast-tracked sentences for
looters publicised, the ‘riots’ subsided.
The looters’ sense of entitlement was
outweighed by the fear of getting
caught. And if that’s the only reason
that it’s not happening again, then we
find ourselves in a dangerous place.
The widespread
acknowledgement that
consumerism is flawed
has created a wonderful
opportunity for a new
world view to take root
in our young people.
We must now believe
that our hope can be
theirs – sharing that
good news should
perhaps become the
key priority for a
Church ideally placed to pick up
society’s broken pieces. Yet the faith
we share with them
must be a two-way
street. We can give young people
something to believe in only because
we can first say that we – unlike the
Peter Hitchens’ of this world – still
believe in them.
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