London riots

Robin Wood, a craftsman from England whose work and blog I admire greatly, has his own take on the London Riots.  He freely admits that he is interpreting the cause from his own personal view:  "...and I also believe that it does connect with the things I normally write about, fulfilling work, or lack of it and particularly the way as a society we relate to stuff."

His opening to his post on the riots I found interesting and thought provoking:  "Let's breed a generation and convince them that success is a new pair of trainers and a 50" plasma tv, bring them up from age 2 to covet material goods and if you can achieve it without having to work hard so much the better, pop stardom, soccer stars, lottery winners this is what we train them to admire. Then we give them little or no chance of achieving that material success by legal means and suddenly one day they see it's all there for the taking. The glass window is all that's between them and what we have trained them to aspire to..."

 I have often felt similarly, though I do not believe this is the full picture, but rather a piece, like the blind men and the elephants, or a historian who, in his attempt to explain the past, really only describes the present.  I would add other things to his litany, like: "Let's also give them no self control, and fill their heads with advertising slogans like "just do it" and also tell them it is the fault of someone else they don't have everything they want, and, while we're at it, remove all moral teaching from their upbringing.  Then tear down the local rec centre so they're bored, on top of everything else, and just waiting for an excuse."

I have not been able to find anyone who can give a reason to the riots.  Is this really about stuff?