Well, this is day 13 of rioting in Paris. As is often the case these days, nobody really seems to know what's going on.
The London Times blames the high unemployment in the slums, which doesn't really explain why they seem to be spreading throughout Europe.
The International Herald Tribune describes the Paris slums as, "Poor housing, mediocre education, rampant crime, drugs, crumbling family structures, joblessness... pits of boredom and despair..." a description which could actually also apply to huge swaths of West Virginia, or even Buffalo.
Spiked argues that Europeans can't really understand the "confused and nihilistic violence", which is probably true. There is a lack of ideas on the part of Europe's leaders. But, actually, the rioters seem to be part of a generation that has completely abandonned the rational, waking world too.
Daniel Pipes sees deeper cultural problems as well as the beginnings of jihad.
I'm sure someone will suggest that maybe it's just fun to burn things. It seems that part of the problem is that none of our rational solutions will actually solve things this time.
To wax Ballardian, maybe the meaningless act is the only thing that has any meaning anymore.
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