COMMENT:

The events in America this past week shows you how slim the thread is that holds together a decent society.

It shows that it is an abstract concept. We voluntarily give ourselves over to a social contract that agrees and shares the rules, that trusts the people charged with enforcing the rules to enforce the rules and to enforce the rules fairly, and we have leadership that oversees the whole shebang.

If one of those three pillars is found wanting then the construct topples over. Frighteningly quickly. In days. We are hours away from being savages.

I will never condone the looting and the fires and anarchy. But I will understand the factors that built this week towards a meltdown of society.

Built on the base of the Virus which has alarmed and feared the American nation and created a tension that is palpable, Daily their leadership is found wanting. Trump has been fiddling while his country burns with fever

Add to that the unemployment that has raged through the States disproportionately affecting African Americans.

Then a week of stories that show how entrenched racism is in white America.

The video of a white woman asked by a black man to put a leash on her dog who then phones the police saying a black man was attacking her. She knew what she was doing and was using the unconscious racism in the police force to attack a black man who was doing the right thing in terms of societal rules.

Then a black man chased and killed by 2 white men in a citizen arrest. Despite no crime committed. But most disturbingly if you're black, the killers were initially not charged. Even though there is video of them shooting them down.

Finally the man killed by a policeman who held his knee on the man’s neck for 8 long minutes. All caught on video and broadcast. The officer not charged for days.

Black Americans in lockdown, in unemployment, saw case after case where their people were treated differently to white Americans. People with their skin were being shot and killed by people with other skin who were not then instantly charged and investigated.

The voluntary social contract was broken so they were no longer beholden. So they looted because an eye for an eye.

Layer on top of that a leader who hit turbo drive attacking left right and centre.

President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on China on  Friday, naming misdeeds that range from espionage to the violation of Hong Kong's freedoms.  He terminated the US relationship with the World Health Organisation and he indulged in a war against Twitter threatening executive control over their freedoms while ironically trying to protect his freedom of speech to lie.

This was a week where domino after domino fell, bringing down the house of cards, to mix a metaphor.

It also puts into perspective the sad moaning of a rich, white, 61 year old, female politician who says she tired of her ethnicity being demonised.  Honey you wouldn’t know the first thing about demonization and you know everything about privilege.

It gives us pause to think at the relative societal stability we have.  The social contract that we successfully maintain.  The kindness most have towards each other.

We have everything to protect.