CHAPTER 4 - GENTRIFY

The causes of what happened on 7th August 2011 in Tottenham are of course deep routed. Part of the problem is trying to immerse the complexity of opportunity distribution and weak leadership, in a narrow objective framework that attempts to quantify qualitative subjective ideas such as standard of living.

It was no surprise the solution came in the form of money. A token gesture of compassion masking a wealth grab that benefited a small minority of the Tottenham community. The asset holders.

The displacement of those sat at the bottom end of the local economy is inevitable. The most alienated and disenfranchised are forced to relocate as their area becomes unrecognisable. It is far easier to divide and split the population than it is to fix the deep routed problems.

They call this Gentrification.


CHAPTER 5 - WARNING SHOT

With all these factors in play, the chance of success is about as thin as the chances of avoiding a catastrophic mistake. That is to say by the time adolescence is reached people will get way more wrong than they will be getting right and by a big margin.

When the majority if not all your peers are failing in the same ways, when there is no external opportunity to enhance your ability to exert influence and have autonomy, and when you are driven from your area and with it your life connections in order to have basic needs, you have a time bomb.

Becoming conscious of your obstructions is the first step. What do with this knowledge is a different proposition entirely.

You have heard a warning shot.


CHAPTER 6 - WOKE

The focus of modern propaganda is on external factors causing personal problems. The correlations are clear. Yet it felt increasingly to me like viewing the world in low pixel resolution. A very unsophisticated picture derived from a very unsophisticated set of tools.

Maybe a good metaphor for woke is in the word itself. When you are awoke, there are those first few moments you open your eyes and are adjusting to the light. However make no mistake, this is not the same as awake. That is to say, being able to make practical sense of this light.

The idea internal problems maybe the cause of external ones, or at least a significant catalyst for said externalities to cause you harm, at some point, for any honest person has to be explored. The cost of not doing so only increases.