Is this really the world we want?

If you had the opportunity to commit a crime and were certain that you would not be punished for it – would you do it?

In amongst all the hand-wringing and over-analysis flowing about these “riots” it is worth spending a little time focusing on that one simple question. Most people – I hope and trust – would answer 'No'. That is because most of us have internalised a sense of right and wrong, a code of conduct that we seek to follow irrespective of immediate social pressures and forces. The great sadness of these recent days is watching the fruits of a society that has long ago forgotten how to cultivate such a moral sense, which has simply carried on drawing down the moral bank balance without making further deposits. These are not political protests against government 'cuts', social oppression or joblessness – however much such elements may have added fuel to the fire. These actions are the inevitable result of a society that has lost its moral moorings, and has ceased to cultivate those traits of character that are the only difference between a civilisation and the state of nature wherein human lives are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. We are a bankrupt culture both financially and morally. Now we see what a generation raised without character looks like.

Decisions and actions have consequences, and a mature person, and a mature society, will take responsibility for their decisions and actions. In the context of these recent obscene London riots I hope that our culture can begin to recognise what it has lost, and what needs to happen in order for a moral culture to be found again. What might that look like?

First, we need to understand that, whatever the social pressures are that the rioters may be responding to, the rule of law has to be upheld. Where there is no law there is but an illusion of freedom – in reality, in the absence of law rule is by the strong and the weak simply get bullied. The only foundation for a socially just order, where the widows and orphans can be protected, is an established and respected rule of law. That means that those responsible for these recent barbarities need to be pursued and held accountable for their actions.

Second, we need to understand that the roots of these problems go very deep. To me, the most significant root is simple selfishness. We have organised our culture around the idol of self-will, 'because I'm worth it'. Those who impose their will upon others are held up as strong; those too weak to do so are discarded and rejected. For everyone, the rights of the consumer are sacrosanct – these are my preferences (I want to shop in the supermarket I choose) and you have no right to speak against it. These are my opinions and they are just as valid as yours. These are my choices in life, and devil take the hindmost!

Consider, as just one example of the cult of selfishness that we have allowed to become so well-established in our society, the explosion in divorce rates and the radical dismantling of a marriage-friendly culture. I would readily accept – and I have seen a number of instances – where a divorce is the only humane way forward from a destructive relationship. Yet I do not believe that such genuine reasons make up a majority of grounds for divorce in our society – I would be surprised if they were even responsible for as many as 10%. No, the principal grounds for divorce in our society are the vintage sins of lust and sloth. Lust is obvious and needs no further explanation, but by sloth I refer to both an unwillingness to work at a relationship, to move past the inevitable hard times, and also an absence of patience and steadfastness – an inability to keep promises, which is something that requires moral effort and labour. The havoc caused by so many divorces are familiar to all I am sure – and the long term consequences we see on the streets today.

So what is the solution? It may well be true that some of the most odious words in the language are 'I told you so' but this is what I have been writing about for the last eighteen months in this newspaper. We need to return to a cultivation of the virtues, those building blocks of moral character without which peaceable society is but a thin crust above seething passions, and we are never far away from another outbreak of violent lawlessness. The most essential element of repairing our society involves recognising that we are accountable to something (or someone) more important than our own desires and preferences and choices. To insist on the latter is to step firmly upon the path to the lawlessness we have recently seen – for on what grounds can we criticise the looter stealing mobile phones from the smashed windows of shops? He is exercising his right to choose, he is affirming his preferences in life, he is the glorious and autonomous determiner of his own destiny - and that is the end to which our society tends. What has happened in recent days is that we have seen our reflection in a mirror, and, like Caliban, we don't particularly like it.

How, then, might we cultivate the essential virtues? Put simply, by joining a community which pursues them, and by practising the steadfastness and persistence needed to internalise them so that, when put to the test, we are not found wanting. To commit to something for the long term, not simply for as long as it suits our fleeting feelings. There are many such communities here on Mersea where important virtues can be followed – the Lions, Rotary, Blind Spot, lots of others – but, as you might expect, I think the key one is church. Church is the place wherein all the other virtues can be recognised and affirmed and placed within the largest context possible. Church is the community within which differences can be explored peaceably – cultivating the virtues of tolerance, peaceableness and forgiveness. The thing about church is not that church members have got it all sorted – clearly we haven't – it's simply that we recognise that we haven't, we are trying to do better and, thanks be to God, we have been given the tools to do the job. What we do with those tools is, of course, up to us.