Imagine. The Rioters.

Imagine you’ve watched all the Mad Max dystopian style movies, been thrilled by violent rap lyrics and enthralled by the heroism of insurgents in the face of American firepower. Imagine all these things fill you with pride. Imagine when you use the word ‘respect’ it means ‘fear.’ Imagine you saw no reason for learning at school and that now, without it, you are without the skills to influence anything, and that you’ve been constantly denigrated for not realising this fact since before you could talk. And imagine you have been surrounded by consumerism based on it, constantly showing and giving you aspirations that are denied to you. Good means bad, all means nothing, respect means fear and society means not you. It only takes a spark for this other ‘not you’ society to coalesce together in ignorant hubris to form an inverse reflection of our own. Imagine being at home with your mates having beaten the police, smashed that window, scared those women and grabbed this brand new boxed 32”, feeling alive, fulfilled and effective. I imagine we’ve experienced three days of prison riots without the prison. Each individual, without exception pieces together a form of self-respect from their encounter with this world. It doesn’t need to be good, moral, intelligent or wise, it just needs to be self-affirming. These imaginings are that affirmation. Now imagine what to do about it.