Unbalanced Minds

Tacitus, a Roman historian & politician, said " I give only one example of the falsity of gossip & heresay, and I urge my readers to beware of incredible tales, however widely they may be believed, & instead to believe the unvarnished truth". He was a wise man & his quotes are worth reading. "A bad peace is worse than war". "Mens minds, once unbalanced, are ready to believe anything". https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2936846.Tacitus 

Tacitus did not have the debatable benefit of Social media & instantaneous communication we have in the 21st century, but what he says is really relevant today almost 2,000 yeas after he wrote. We are swayed by what we see on TV, our computers & phones. We read truths, half truths & lies. We listen to gossip. We don't routinely fact check. We assume what we are being told is the truth. 

We are living in a post truth era. We really don't know who to believe & who to trust. How can we rely on our own capacity to discriminate between lies & fact? How can we know how to behave? When image & public relations are everything & we demand charisma from our politicians we can easily be swayed to believe anything. Statistics are manipulated. The BBC now has to have a special department to verify fact. Malign Foreign agencies hack into our communications. Artificial Intelligence & algorithms rule, facial recognitian can be manipulated.

I wonder if we know what reality is?

In this world seemingly it is easy to whip up mob rule. Mindless, ill informed, criminals & yobs rampage destroying everything in their path & terrifying people. People are injured, businesses are destroyed & looting is commonplace. This is not a demonstration against some injustice. This is wilful illegal behaviour, largely by men high on testosterone & adrenaline who are just out for a fight. 

Riots can arise out of perceived grievance or dissent - poverty, unemployment, poor living conditions, governmental opression or taxation, conflicts between races & religions even football matches. People may feel they have grievances & are not being heard. Rioters possibly want change & want to be heard. 

Whatever the reasons, real or imagined, this is not acceptable in a so called democratic & civilised society. 

The question is what do we do with them when we catch them? Because with todays surveillance techniques it certainly should be possible to catch them. We need to have a public discussion about justice & criminality because our justice system isn't working. It isn't as simple as Crime & Punishment. Locking them away in poorly staffed, unsuitable prisons won't work & there isn't the capacity anyway. We need to consider using more restorative justice & community sentences. 

Criminals need to understand what they have done & why the reasonable majority won't tolerate it.