<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/09/2012 20:51, John Clark wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAJPayv2dxMdUoo7xeuPRWn0KZBaWTNRGM_9=Gin12KAKEeb+Ww@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 5:25 AM, BillK <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:pharos@gmail.com" target="_blank">pharos@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
> What’s the number one reason we riot?</blockquote>
<div><br>
Cartoons and You Tube videos. That's what Muslims would say
and that's what the USA's ambassador to Libya would say if he
could but he can't because he was torn apart by a religious
mob yesterday on September 11.<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
There is a depressing regularity in the riots in the Muslim world.
Somebody expresses something rude somewhere, poor people riot and
get killed (ambassadors are unusual victims). If one were
anti-Muslim one could easily kill people remotely and safely simply
by producing a suitable stream of controversial viral media - but it
doesn't work the other way around. <br>
<br>
The reason is largely to be found in the human development indices.
When people have political freedom, they tend to respond to
provocations by shouting back or arguing that Somebody Ought to Do
Something. When people perceive themselves as having a fairly good
economic situation they have things to lose, so they are unlikely to
riot. Conversely, when your political freedom is circumscribed any
protest against the system is going to be illegal - yet you can
express your anger by protesting against an outside enemy. And if
the situation is fairly unbearable, then the step to rioting is
small. The provocation is irrelevant (and often played by various
memetic players), what really drives things is that these societies
for various reasons are not working well and are under a lot of
pressure.<br>
<br>
Plentiful energy and food might lower some pressures, but actually
worsen others. I shudder at the thought of the Arabian states if oil
revenues come crashing down.<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University </pre>
</body>
</html>