The first riot
I think the first television riot was in 1991 when Rodney King was beaten up. The first real television war began. Gulf War, where each channel was running war scenes around 24/7 around the world. I think it was a turning point in the news on television and how powerful the medium was. Because it has never been seen in detail before. If you remember the scenes in Iraq when you spoke to reporters. When the Scud, Cruise and Tomahawk missiles ignited the sky and the fire caused them to cut marks on the ground.
I was young, not quite twelve and I remember how it all contained the collective imagination and even at that age I knew it was important. Do you remember the night-vision footage of the strike, the flames burning in the background, the crossed eyes of newscaster Bobby Batissa? It was a war we had never seen before and had public news coverage in Vietnam. The Gulf War turned it into an armchair sport.
A few months after the start of the Gulf War, Rodney King was beaten by police after he fled the scene in a car chase. Who knows how many more similar incidents of beating up a black man. But I'm sure it wasn't the first. However, it was at least one of the first to be caught on camera, with George Halida, a member of the public, filming from his porch.
Nowadays, everyone has a camera. Because everyone has a smart phone in their pocket and that means the chances of something being caught on camera have increased a few thousand times. It’s incredible that U.S. police haven’t learned yet, as they now also wear body cameras.
However, what I find even more unbelievable is that people still believe that protesting and rioting improves the situation. I was writing today about consumer behavior and how I believe we can change the whole process through our purchasing decisions and our decisions in general as an economically integrated powerhouse. Control over us is granted by us. Basically through indifference and a desire for convenience.
Social movements cause change. But while the issue of protests and riots does not seem to be recognized by most, it is not that any change and gain must believe in it. Basically, a protest appeals to the authorities. Tell the authorities that we want them to change their laws or procedures in some way. Basically, it is begging slave masters for better quality food, but not liberation from slavery.
When this route is won and the authority changes, it’s a lot like getting a discount on a car. But unknowingly extra money is paid for the tires. Discounts offered for change are simply transferred to a less visible place, it is a socially less charged. But the cost to society is the same, if not more.
As I can see, the only way to get out of the bondage of the government and the debt cycle is to take a very messy position of responsibility for ourselves and give up the benefits we need. This has been done through the development of our own economy. Which does not rely on the government or corporation to do the work and relies on a community that feels that conditions are unstable. Such as dividing the city community. The new hive community has more value than the first.
The way the war changed in 1991 attracted the attention of the media. It degrades. That brought the news to the mainstream. This has been done by enhancing and improving the efficiency of the Internet in order to capture audiences in more content buckets and target them with cheaper and centralized advertising. The ability to submit all kinds of news between us as citizens cycles the ability and then our own creations as customers turn off. This is a strange reality.
Instead of appealing to the authorities, the people themselves take matters into their own hands and change. This is in contrast to the general internet practice of society on social media, where platforms are not as limited. Their demand is still there regardless of how intrusive or harmful it is. Still justifiable. The user base throws up its hands for two days and then it returns to the business, putting more value in the hands of those who despised them a while ago.
The decisions we make make the world where we live and the decisions we make will shape the future.
"Don't protest, don't riot, don't say a word."
Change.
The spikes of history leave us memories of change. But as they say, slowly and steadily this race wins the competition. Replace them with something better instead of fighting the authoritarian system. The replacement takes development, testing, and time to notice and accept. But when it reaches this tipping point, it moves fast and can hardly stop flooding.