What about our adult "flash mobs" of corruption?

Let's face it -- it's hard to make sense of the British riots. Let's start out with the basics as we do every time this sort of thing happens, which is to note that a) violence in any form (except self-defense) is deplorable, as is theft, and violators of the law should be punished, not only because what they did was morally wrong but in deference to the many decent citizens who didn't run off with flat screen TVs or whatever. But the acknowledgment of a) does not mean we should ignore b), which is are there social conditions that are fostering unrest, and can those be ameliorated?

On both sides of the Atlantic (and yes, I'm also talking now about the Philadelphia teen mobs) too many are quick to mimic Britain's David Cameron in the a)-only category. But everything I've read or seen out of the UK defies the easy answers that people eagerly seek. Looters were dispersed among racial and even socio-economic groups, as people with decent middle-class jobs have been convicted of perry theft. Where would they get the idea that such immoral behavior was OK?

Comes now the best piece I've read on the subject, or frankly on any subject in quite a while. And get this: It comes from possibly the most conservative major newspaper in England, the Telegraph, which is a little like the Washington Times without the "Moonie" connection. The headline sums it up:

"The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as at the bottom":

But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week's dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.

I cannot accept that this is the case. Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed has grown up.

It is not just the feral youth of Tottenham who have forgotten they have duties as well as rights. So have the feral rich of Chelsea and Kensington. A few years ago, my wife and I went to a dinner party in a large house in west London. A security guard prowled along the street outside, and there was much talk of the "north-south divide", which I took literally for a while until I realised that my hosts were facetiously referring to the difference between those who lived north and south of Kensington High Street.

Most of the people in this very expensive street were every bit as deracinated and cut off from the rest of Britain as the young, unemployed men and women who have caused such terrible damage over the last few days.

The writer of this (I can't say it enough) outstanding piece, Peter Oborne, goes on to spell out some of the kinds of looting that has taken place among Britain's elite, including the successful bribery of police officers by Rupert Murdoch's minions as well as an expense account scandal in which members of Parliament ripped off UK taxpayers.

Could it happen here? Hah! You and I both know that it already has -- from the crooked banksters who crashed the world economy while becoming multi-millionaires by foisting their mortgage and student-loan schemes on a desperate middle class, to the torture-mongers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenuewho shut off the beacon of human rights that once emanated from America. Not a one of them punished even as much as the 50 Philly teenagers who didn't know enough to clear the streets at 9 p.m.

It's not too late, America. We could still crack down on our adult "flash mobs" of political and economic corruption, on the folks who looted a lot more than a case of water bottles. But as they'd say across the pond, that's not bloody likely, is it?