I’m angry! I object to this sort of thing! And I want to do something about it! So, I’m going to riot!

From what I understand, the point behind the riots going on at the moment is a build up of anger at the government and this guy getting shot was an outlet for the rage. If it wasn’t someone getting shot, it’d be someone not getting arrested soon enough, or a police officer acting like a human being (god forbid!) and making some other mistake.

Blaming the government seems to be a bit of a fad at the moment and it worries me. I worry that people feel like their lives are so out of their own hands, so out of control, that they need to use their anger to grab at it back. We’ve been taught that, when something’s wrong with the world, it’s the governments responsibility, not our own, to fix it. They don’t open their eyes, they don’t think for themselves for two minutes to really understand what’s going on past what they’ve been told by their peers and the newspapers. They make up their own flawed reasons why it is what it is and don’t question it.

But who are the government? They’re still just a bunch of people, just like you or me, with people screaming down their necks to change this and that and decrease taxes and increase benefits and give more or less aid to the middle east. They have their own agenda, even if it is to make the rich richer and I’m not saying that’s okay, but perhaps instead of knocking on their door and saying “Hey, hurry up and change this!” take it into your own hands and set up something that’ll help people in the same way, without waiting for the government to sort it out.

And until then, chill out, drink tea and carry on!