Know your enemy! The Fireworks that light up Cities and the flaws of the free market logic.

 

To provide a summary of 2020, life has been pretty bleak.  The Corona Virus has rampaged through the World, with the UK as no exception as the death tolls that we know of have tragically reached nearly 60,000. (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/) whilst at the same time, millions of people in Britain have lost their jobs, families have broken down and many are already living in fear, loneliness and deteriorating mental health. In response to the ever growing risk to Public Health, the Government have introduced a series of measures which they believe will curb the spread of the virus and protecting those vulnerable as well as businesses who by the day are suffering economically. One rule in particular that is policy during the time of writing this piece is that people are not allowed to mix in households or indoor spaces in groups of more than six, unless all members of the party are from the same household. This measure at least means that there cannot be any Bonfire or firework displays, that before the advent of Covid, would have taken place as a legitimised and commodified act of leisure. Despite this rule of six, that has been introduced by the UK Government on the 14^th September 2020 (https://www.gov.uk/), the widespread sale of fireworks and sparklers have continued to go on sale. News Source ‘Birmingham Live’ wrote an article on 29^th October 2020, giving information to readers as to where they can buy fireworks and sparklers for if they wish to host their own firework display at home, in the light of the fact that near to all firework displays across the Country have been cancelled because of the Virus. (https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/where-to-buy-fireworks-birmingham-12009548)  Two days later, on the night of Halloween, video footage was uploaded by social media pages (see a page on Instagram titled ‘ImjustBrum’) which displayed scenes of fireworks being let off in the Streets of Cape Hill, Smethwick in Birmingham. The fireworks were being let off by hooded youths and were deliberately aiming fireworks at Police cars, innocent pedestrians and drivers. The streets were lit up like a war zone and the noise of the fireworks were loud enough to awaken the dead. On November 1^st 2020 Birmingham Live reported these scenes and titled their article-  “mindless yobs launch fireworks at Police cars in Cape Hill, Smethwick”. (https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/watch--mindless-yobs-launch-19202212  It is important to note that Birmingham Live had on the 29^th October been encouraging the consumption of fireworks, by informing readers where they could access fireworks for a cheap cost across Birmingham and West Midlands, and then when the inevitable anti-social behaviour happened, to display their disgust at Youths throwing off fireworks in the Streets. This is an example of the hypocrisy of the media. Too often, do the media commodify such harmful acts and encourage readers to go out and indulge, yet when inevitable events happen in which people get injured, killed and the heightened sense of anxiety do the same media do their predictable tutting and head shaking in disgust at the actions of others, which they themselves have been encouraging and commodifying. Additionally, Major Supermarkets such as ASDA, whose annual turn over in 2019 was almost £23bn (https://www.insidermedia.com/) have been selling fireworks of all shapes and sizes to customers, despite the Government putting the UK on lock down and such firework based activities would be banned in the ‘legitimised’ public sphere, such as Family based firework displays in small Communities. We have now reached a point of perpetual crisis. The logic of free market economy and competitive profit making has meant that consumer logic is based purely around hard selling and mass consumption, irrespective of the social, ethical and inevitable consequences. The safety and security of communities where fireworks are concerned has completely been compromised in the pursuit of profit, for Billion-pound Corporations. The logic of a free market economy and its advocates have argued that if the markets are left alone, they will look after themselves and act ethically and responsibly in accordance.  This was argued by Adam Smith in his book ‘wealth of nations’ first published in 1776. Such a free market logic just simply does not work, as shown by such acts of violence we have witnessed over the last week. The markets need to take responsibility for the impact that their competitive and profit driven agenda has produced. The complicity in the markets almost seems invisible, as they retreat into the shadows, cower behind the protections that Neoliberalism logic offers and disavowals their role in the creation of such acts of violence that yet they continue to they  repackage and sell back to consumers, also in an effort to make profit.  This is the brutal truths of capitalist realism. We are embedded in a system of perpetual crisis and anxiety in which we cannot escape, and disavowal such harms through even more consumer capitalism. This blog argues two things. Firstly, that fireworks should be banned for public use. Secondly, as a ‘progressive’ society, we need to better understand both the obvious and hidden driving forces of such acts of socially corrosive harms that we witness every single year during the key holiday seasons. (Other examples include Black Friday Sales and the Killer clown phase). We need to turn our gaze away from a myopic, pathologized micro explanation of such behaviours, which sits purely with the individual, and instead look at the macro wider picture, towards the political economy in which we are immersed into. Holding the markets accountable for their hard selling of harmful commodities such as fireworks and striving towards a future in which the markets are regulated by the State and act in the interests of people and not privatised profit making. Such a free market approach under late capitalism has eroded the safety and ontological security of communities, as have been displayed by fireworks night and Halloween.