What are the UK Riots all about?

The big news at the moment are the riots in the UK. Having now spent some time reading various articles on the topic and gauging the reactions from many different people I find it funny that nobody has as yet asked the question I keep asking myself. How did a peaceful protest erupt into a country wide riot?

First I think it is necessary for me to clarify that I am appalled at these riots... those that have now jumped on the bandwagon and have made a one night act of frustration into a prolonged glimpse into basic human behavior, have done purely for the opportunity to loot or vent some misplaced aggression. I also think that the situation might be over now ... but I might be eating my own words if this turns into a full blown civil-war (I highly doubt it but then one never knows).

So it is time to look at the why. Why did most likely some youths decide to turn violent and start the domino that would create such an escalation of events? And, why did the violence persist and why did it spread? Now a psychologist would boil it down to two non social issues which are: 1) the recent heat that made people more aggressive and 2) the fact that it is currently the summer vacations and many young people find themselves less occupied and so have the time to rebel against authority. And I believe that these are two crucial factors in why these riots happened and yet I would much rather like to look at the social factors that the rioters will hang out as their motives to act in the way they did.

As I am running out of time I will just quickly outline what my argument will be about and write a second part to this post tomorrow. Underlining to the outbreak of violence is the current financial situation of the UK, with a household deficit around 500%, continued spending cuts and a dis-enfranchised working class the signs of revolution are beginning to align themselves. And I fear that the government will act as it so often does (and this would have been the same with any party in power). The government will take action to appease the frightened middle and upper classes while giving those that might hope to have their voices of concern heard through this a dead end outlet. Ultimately not changing the status quo, trying to get back to the way the things used to be rather than attempting to find a new order where a larger fraction of the population might be happy.

Well to be continued...
And therefore:

Thank you for staying open-minded