Hi Liz,

'"You" always were a target along with everyone else who has something that another person believes they need. Got have a mobile phone? Someone else wants it because it's a nicer model than theirs. Got a computer? Someone wants to take it and sell it to feed a crack habit.'

Exactly, I agree entirely, the violence is a product of society where needs are not met, as well as tenuous needs being invented by the massive advertising industry. These things affect those within the bottom of the pile as much a the bottom.

Just because you've got a degree and a well paid job doesn't necessarily mean you're happy with your lot, you're still part of the hierachical society with all the oppression of bosses, the competitive workplace and the drudgery of employment. The pressure to climb the status scale (measured in the price of your car, mobile phone, widescreen TV, DVD player, clothes etc) is immense. These are the factors that contribute to producing the kind of scum that perpetrates violent acts against folkies.

It is this system of competition instead of co-operation, bosses and sub-ordinates instead of equals and the relentless marketing machine that passes as art, information and entertainment that we need to end to get some security back. We have the potential to produce enough goods and services to satisfy everyone's basic needs, and not so basic needs too, and organise it in a way that work is a satisfying experience. In that kind of society I don't think anyone would feel the frustrations that give rise to the act of drinking ten pints of beer and giving someone a hiding.