It has become obvious that it was not just outsiders and anarchists taking part in the riots after Game 7

As the evidence, apologies, threats and counter threats are now playing out on Facebook and Twitter can we put to rest the claims by our politicians that the Vancouver riot was constituted by a small number of troublemakers and anarchists? As we see the faces of middle class children with potentially bright futures splashed across the media doing horrific damage and mayhem is there any doubt that there is a lot more to this than pointing blame at a few? What is it, even hours before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup, that made young men in $100 Canucks sweaters express their attitude to "The Best Place on Earth" (B.C.'s official motto) and the self-described most livable, most beautiful, most sustainable place on Earth by spitting on it?

Of course, we know from studies, that when one person spits or litters it makes it far more likely that other people will follow along. And, when people start to smash windows and burn and damage cars, and loot, that too makes it more likely that other people will follow along - especially when their inhibitions have been lowered by hours of drinking to take their minds off the fact that in the land of $1.3-million "starter" bungalows, $400,000 one-bedroom condos and $750,000 two-bedroom condos, their prospects for a middle-class lifestyle with a family of two or three children are dim indeed.

It is telling that Mayor Gregor Robertson and others interviewed about this event described it as hooligans "smearing the name of the city," who "by no means represent(ed) the city of Vancouver." Even the heroes in the event, those isolated people who tried to stop the mayhem, at great personal risk, said nothing about the morality but emphasized that they did it because they didn't want Vancouver's name besmirched.

And, the next day everyone was relieved the real Vancouver emerged, when the right kind of people came downtown and volunteered in the clean up.

The only problem, of course, is that social media soon showed that Mayor Robertson was wrong. Thousands of young Vancouverites either participated or cheered on looters and property vandals and arsonists. They raised their arms in victory with each smash and burn. Perhaps even more shocking were the young people with their latest versions of iPhones standing in the middle of a riot, or within a few feet of a burning car, about to have its gas tank blow up in a fireball, snapping photos.

More bizarre still was the willingness of most to give media interviews. In this world, obsessed with celebrities and politicians behaving badly, these young people relish the chance to appear on old-style media or new social media, as if publicity for any reason is their raison d'être. One young woman asked why as she carried away a designer purse from a looted store stated the obvious: "Because I wanted it."

What if these young people do represent what Vancouver is and what it shall be? What if they are in fact dedicated to wanting to smear the reputation of the Best Place on Earth? What if the children of those who were hippies in 1970 and moved to Vancouver as part of their cultural revolution, have themselves decided to take part in their own, very different, cultural revolution?

Has anyone considered that the youth in a city where the average income is $56,000 and the average house price is $750,000 and who have no hope of entering the middle class, no hope of getting out of their parents' basements, and who occupy their time with toys (often violent video games), tweeting short inanities to their similarly situated friends, watching ultimate fighting championships and hockey "enforcers" and drinking and smoking dope, might really want to spit all over this city and smash it and boast about it to their friends by sending the photos out on Facebook?

What if what we see being reflected are the cultural consequences of a post-religious society with no clear moral compass and no overarching guiding values?

Vancouver has adopted a Lotus Land ideology of cultural relativism in which we tell our children that there are no good cultures and bad cultures and no good versus evil (nowhere in Canada is traditional religion more passé than in Vancouver). Moreover Vancouver is the place where there is the least stigma in Canada against getting high, using illegal drugs, stock fraud, drug dealing, and a whole variety of bad behaviours.

Vancouverites like to say that their high housing prices are the result of it being such a wonderful place to live and because of our high rate of immigration. This is only a small part of the story. A series of urban planning policies and programs have resulted in increased cost of new housing, all the better to benefit those lucky enough to have already purchased their fast appreciating huts in Lotus Land.

A vast number of people in Vancouver view themselves as "secular but spiritual." Too often it means a worship of nature and the absence of discussion of values and morality. If they are raised without any clear values, is it any wonder that young people use what spare cash they have to get tattooed with fetish-like body art? There is no point saving their money for a down payment on a house if the house requires a down payment of $300,000 and a mortgage of $700,000.

The largest single business in B.C., estimated to be in the order of $7 billion dollars per year, is the cultivation and distribution of marijuana and other illegal drugs. The Vancouver stock market is rife with stock fraud and white collar crime. Vancouverites had endless money to spend on the Olympics, but not enough for proper psychiatric care for the legions of homeless wandering around the Downtown Eastside or spending their days collecting bottles and cans in the alleys to redeem at seven to 10 cents each.

The enemy is not some hooligans, some anarchists, some out-of-towners, some criminal types at all. The enemy is us and what we are bequeathing to our children in terms of moral values, of understanding right from wrong, that celebrity misconduct should be pitied not emulated, and that justice and the respect for it is a hallmark of a civilized western society. Add to that moral confusion the extended adolescence of these young adults, and we have a recipe for just the kind of behaviour we witnessed in Downtown Vancouver in the Stanley Cup Riots of 2011.

They have not smeared our reputation. We have no reputation to smear. Much of our society is behaving badly. The riots are reflective of a loss of hope and a deep seated anger that we have created in our own children.

We all need to act better and then maybe our children will follow us.

Penny Gurstein is director of the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia and Howard Rotberg is the author of various books including Exploring Vancouverism: The Political Culture of Canada's Lotus Land.