The 'crisis' highlights the fact that our ‘traditional’ institutions - politics, the traditional media, the police - just don’t seem to be as important as they were even a few years ago.

Power is shifting from the centre to the edges.

What a fearless grandmother in Hackney said was more important than anything uttered by any of our politicians.

Turkish shop-owners have been able to protect communities and property in a way the police simply  haven’t. 

People aren’t waiting for the council to clear up: the image of the street of brooms is as simple and powerful as any grainy old black and white photos of barn-raisings from 18th- and 19th-century North America.

And people are sharing information, including photos of rioters, and lampooning looters in a way that only a few years ago would have been the domain of satirical entertainment shows and the mainstream media.

Screaming grannies and Turkish guys with sticks is probably not quite the Big Society that Dave and his mates had in mind. 

I think it’s much more exciting, and not altogether gloomy.

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PS: We almost called Made by Many 'Crowds and Power'. I'm kind of glad we didn't...