Utterly Inexplicable

We seek liberty, and community, though together the two forces can be powerful and destructive. The University of Kentucky basketball team defeats rival Louisville, and areas in Lexington are vandalized by a wildly celebrating mob. Days later, they win the national championship, and they do it again, although not as bad, having been warned in advance. 

In L.A., the Lakers win the NBA crown, same thing. Someone said to me "why do people, when they celebrate as a mob, destroy their own property and their own neighborhoods.? And for that matter, why do people, when having  angry protests, destroy their own neighborhoods, like the Watts in L.A. or the ghettos in many major american cities during the race riots of the nineteen sixties?"

I thought it was an interesting question, and provoked a new way of looking at this behavior. WE know the reason for the race riots, but indeed, why demonstrate to the establishment that you are capable of burning and destroying your own neighborhood?

And we certainly know why people celebrate in the streets after a big win on the athletic field. But why, when joyful, destroy property, and your own city,  while supposedly  rejoicing? Mass human energy, with nowhere to go, arousing deeply stored anger, now coming to the surface, thoughtlessly vented through violence?


...well, when you have nowhere else to go, and nothing else better to do, but you have to do something, and you have to do it now.......a philosopher once said "against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."