The Devolution Of Responsibility & The Politics Of Entitlement

The ticker on Sky News was trailing, “LONDON BURNING”, and for a second – actually an age – the world felt surreal, in slo-mo, apocalyptic, like when the Twin Towers fell or when London was attacked on 7/7. We were superglued to the rolling news, to the war-like scenes of devastation; repulsed, reeling, incredulous yet still unable to move. It was so, so shocking.

To be honest, I don’t know why we were all so shocked by the riots that spread across the country this week. It’s been a long time coming if we really think about it. We just didn’t want to open our eyes and see. You only have to switch on Jeremy Kyle any morning to see how far our society has slid into the primordial slime. There’s Broken Britain for all to see, the non-working class living – although that very much depends on your definition of living – on benefits they’re probably not entitled to in a fug of fags, drink, drugs and fury. Mainly fury, though. They suppurate with anger that’s ready to boil over at any moment.

And now it has boiled over we’re left asking one simple question: why? The trouble is the answers are massively complex. You could blame Thatcher and her cult of the individual ideology that stripped society of its team spirit; you could blame Labour for being too soft on benefit-seekers; you could blame parents for having kids they don’t seem to able/want to parent; you could blame the dual rise of serious drink and drug problems; you could, realistically, blame all of the above and it would be fair comment.

But, as I see it, the biggest ill society has suffered over the past 20 years is the devolution of personal responsibility. Nothing is ever anyone’s own fault any more. There’s always someone else to carry the can. Why do you think the where-there’s-a-blame-there’s-a-claim culture has taken such deep root? If you can’t even take responsibility for walking down the street and tripping on a paving slab, then what hope have we got of the younger generation taking responsibility for their own destinies, of owning their disillusionment and looting their imaginations for solutions, not Foot Locker for crap sportswear.

I don’t say that to be rampantly Rightwing. In fact, I’m often accused of being too Leftwing, too liberal. I say it because I think this current crisis transcends Right- and Leftwing. It’s not about politics in the traditional sense. It’s about the politics of entitlement, people who do not appear to want to work yet believe they have a right to the biggest plasma or the latest pair of Nikes. It’s all bound up in celebrity idolatry, of course, the idea that everyone can look that good, live that well, be that fabulous. We all buy into it to a greater or lesser extent, but very few of us cross the Rubicon and detonate our moral compass to get it.

Some of the rioters have tried to justify their actions by saying that it was their way of sticking it to authority, but politics didn’t seem the motivation to me. Materialism was more the mark, an orgy of grabbing and snatching. It looked almost animalistic and indeed the rioters have been widely described as “animals”. However, it would be wise to remember that animals rarely turn on their own which makes the rioters’ behaviour even more mindlessly inexplicable. They have also been branded as “thugs”, “scum”, “cretins” and worse, but while I may not disagree with the sentiments behind those nouns I think they’re deeply unhelpful because they give those responsible a get-out-of-gaol-free card. It dehumanises them when we should never lose sight of the fact that they are human beings with choices, free will and individual accountability like you or I. Demonise them and you let them off the hook.

Watching the riots unfold live on TV was like watching absolute anomie, what happens when the devolution of responsibility and the politics of entitlement collide to create a perfect toxic storm. Ultimately, though, amidst all the senseless chaos we need to cling to one very important thing: there are much, much more good, decent, kind people in this world than cruel, dead-eyed, criminally bad ones. The minute we forget that, then we’re all lost