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Here is my take on the looting that took place after George Floyd appeared to be unjustly killed. Maybe it will help some to understand why people loot.

There are four levels of human experience.

Level One is the Peak Experience.

1. You do something that feels good.
2. It's good for you.
3. It's good for others.
4. It serves the greater good.

Level One is what we all strive for. Hitting a home run. Getting an A on a test. Getting married. Having a baby. Those are all peak experiences.

But to get to Level One you have to experience Level Two.

1. It doesn't feel good.
2. It's good for you.
3. It's good for others.
4. It serves the greater good.

My wife giving birth looked pretty painful to me, but the results were amazing. There was a lot of pain for her (and not too much for me except anxiety), but ultimately it was good for us, it was good for others, and it served the greater good.

Doing homework does not feel good, but when it leads to a good grade it is a peak experience. Putting in hours of piano practice is not always fun, but when it leads to a great performance it's a peak experience. Hard work pays off. Great performances can be transcendent.

Level Three experiences you want to avoid.

1. It feels good.
2. It isn't good for you.
3. It isn't good for others.
4. It doesn't serve the greater good.

Drug and alcohol abuse fall into this category. They can definitely make you feel good, but there is a giant downside to abusing them. Drug or alcohol abusers do a lot of damage to themselves, to their loved ones, and to society. There is a huge cost for everyone.

Level Four is one you should avoid at all costs, but being that we are human sometimes our human nature gets the better of us:

1. It doesn't feel good
2. It isn't good for you.
3. It isn't good for others.
4. It doesn't serve the greater good.

Anger makes us have Human Experience Level Four. Maybe you punch a wall because you're so angry. You put a hole in the wall and break your hand. That's not good for you or anyone else. Or worse, maybe you abuse a loved one. It doesn't make you feel good, it definitely is not good for you, it isn't good for the person being abused, and it certainly doesn't serve the greater good. If you think it does then you're probably a psychopath and that requires a much longer discussion.

Looting may or may not feel good, but ultimately it is not good for you because it destroys the community, it isn't good for others for the same reason, and definitely doesn't serve the greater good.
So looting is human experience number three and/or four.

Level Four is borne of anger and frustration. When a person is killed it is a crime against all of humanity. When a black man is killed unjustly in his community and three of the four cops stand around and let the man die at the hands of their compatriot it is bound to cause a lot of anger in the community. The people in the community feel powerless. Thank about it. You just watched a policeman hold his knee on a man's neck until the man died and no one tried to help. If a citizen would have intervened to stop the cops the intervening citizen might have gotten killed.

A better response than looting is for a community leader/activist to step up and organize the community. Economic boycotts. Civic protests. etc. The only downside is that sometimes activists get murdered -- like Martin Luther King. And they get murdered because people will use their power out of fear to prevent others from gaining power.

So while I do not condone looting, I understand the motivation for it. No one died from the looting and maybe it acted as a relief value to let some pressure off of the situation. That's a small price to pay. Everything that was looted is replaceable. George Floyd's life is not. There is no equality in the comparison of looting to unjust killing. A member of the community was unjustly killed and his death was a crime against all humanity, but it was especially felt in the local community where it happened and in all of the black community across the country.

I got off of PA while back because I there was too much negativity and it wasn't healthy for me. And who knows, after this post I may have to get off again. I told myself I would avoid politics if I got back on. But it's hard to see man's inhumanity to man and not comment on it. Silence is complicity.