The first riot

The first televised riot I remember seeing was instigated by the beating of Rodney King in 1991, just after the start of the first truly televised war, the Gulf war, where every channel was running the scenes of war near 24/7 globally. I think that this was a turning point in television news and how truly powerful the medium was, as it could capture never before seen detail. If you remember the scenes from Iraq with reporters speaking while Scud, Cruise and Tomahawk missiles lit the sky and the fires they caused scarred the ground.

I was young, not quite twelve and I remember how it all captured the collective imagination and even at that age, I knew it was important. Do you remember seeing the night-vision footage of strikes, the flames burning in the background, the newscaster Bobbie Battista's crossed eyes? This was war like we had never seen before and while Vietnam had coverage that was pushed into the public news, the Gulf war made it an armchair sport.

A couple months after the start of the Gulf war, there was the Rodney King beating after he ran from police in a car chase. Who knows how many other similar incidents ended with a black man beaten, but I am sure this wasn't the first. However, it was at least among the first that was captured on camera, with George Holliday, a member of the public, filming from his balcony.

These days, everyone has a camera, because everyone has a smart phone in their pocket and this means the chance of pretty much anything getting caught on camera has gone up by a few thousand times. It is incredible that the US police still haven't learned, as even they wear body cameras now.

But, what I find even more incredible is that people still believe that protesting and rioting actually improves the situation. I was writing about consumer behavior today and how I believe that we as the economic collective powerhouse can change the entire process through our purchase decisions and our decisions in general. The control held over us is granted by us, largely through apathy and a desire for convenience.

Social movements do create change, but what most don't seem to recognize when it comes to protests and riots is that any change and gains made isn't necessarily what they believe it to be. Essentially, a protest is putting in an appeal to authority, saying to the authority that we want them to change their laws or processes in some way. Essentially, it is begging slave masters for better quality food, but not freedom from slavery.

When there is victory in this way and the authority makes a change, it is generally much like getting a discount on a car, but unknowingly paying extra for the tires - the concessions made for changes are just shifted to a less visible area, one that is less socially charged - but the cost to society is the same, if not more.

As I see it, the only way to actually get out of the slavery of governments and debt cycles is to take the very messy position of responsibility for ourselves and this requires giving up on the convenience. This is done by developing our own economy that doesn't rely on a government or corporation to function and one with a community that is able to flex if it feels the conditions are untenable, much like the conditions that forked the Steem community into two, with the new Hive community holding more value than the first.

The shift of war to become a sport back in 1991 resulted in the degradation of the media to pander to whatever grabs attention, the tabloid news made mainstream. This has been further driven by the ramping up and leveraging of the internet's ability to distribute as well as capture audiences into content buckets and target them with cheap and focused advertising - and, the ability for us as citizens to submit all kinds of news into the cycles, and then feed off our own creations as consumers. It is a strange reality.

Perhaps, the fork of Steem could be a turning point in the other direction, one where instead of throwing up arms and appealing to the authorities, the community itself takes matters into its own hands and shifts. This is unlike the general internet habits of society on social media, where no matter how restrictive, how intrusive or how harmful the platforms get, they are still in demand, still supported. The user base throws up its arms for a day or two, and then it is back to business, driving even more value into the hands of those they despised just moments ago.

The decisions we have made have created the world in which we live and the decisions we will make will shape the future.

Don't protest, don't riot, don't say a word -

Change.

The spikes in history leave us with memories of change, but as they say, slow and steady wins the race. Rather than fight against authoritarian systems, replace them with something better. Replacement takes development, testing and time to capture attention and gain adoption - but when that tipping point is reached, it moves swiftly and very little can stop the flood.