When the American Revolution began in 1775, the news travelled to England. The eccentric King George III did not like bad news and fiercely scolded anyone who brought it up.
Finally, one courtier screwed up his courage, and said, “your Majesty, the American colonists are revolting.”
King George allegedly replied, “they certainly are.”
That story may be apocryphal, but it serves a point.
People could say the same about those who recently trashed part of downtown Vancouver. They were revolting.
But, I believe many don’t understand the nature of that revolt. It was like the American and French revolutions, but much smaller in scale.
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It was the result of wide-spread unhappiness, which is growing.
In our society, many believe if you study, particularly in university, you’ll get a good job and make lots of money.
Experience says otherwise. In Canada, among those aged 15-24, unemployment was at 15 to 16 per cent for the last couple of years, about twice the average of all workers. Similar, and worse, differences exist in other countries.
Those who have jobs are often relegated to “cube farms,” rows of small office spaces where they rarely use the skills they have developed, such as teamwork and innovation.
High unemployment also helped cause the French Revolution.
As France modernized, machinery use increased, drawing people to factories. Work-seekers became victims of unemployment and poverty, which resulted in sickness and hunger. Sick and hungry people are not happy people.
The revolt in Vancouver wasn’t about sickness and hunger, but it was certainly a reaction to unemployment, frustration and politics.
Young people are becoming more distant from Canada’s political processes. They don’t see the relevance of an outdated political system that doesn’t serve their needs. They are angry about the sensed dishonesty of politicians who don’t apparently intend to keep promises and who argue that black is white. We, who are older, tend to put up with that nonsense; increasingly, young people won’t.
Armed with their cellphones, people can easily organize and quickly reorganize and shift places, causing havoc as they move.
Given today’s unemployment, pent-up frustration, anger and the philosophy of radical individualism, I was not surprised by the riot. It was as violent as the hockey game which preceded it.
Yet, two things surprised me.
One was the use of social media against those rioters. Thousands of pictures and videos, taken by people who saw the action, were turned over to the police. The new media have reporters everywhere.
The other surprise was the extent to which people helped. Some took burning material out of cars. Some blocked smashed windows and doors. Many came out to help clean up after the misadventure. Community spirit lives, in crisis.
Clearly, we’re seeing significant social shift, which, I think, will lead to changes in all our social structures. But I have no idea when that will be clearly noticeable or what the new world will look like.
