In 1963, Anthony Burgess brilliantly created a working-class dystopia in his novel, “A Clockwork Orange.” Set in a future UK, the novel describes an incompetently governed society terrorized by uneducated, unemployed teenage street gangs through the eyes of Alex, its sociopathic 15-year-old narrator.

The book's title is a nod to an old Cockney phrase, “as queer as a clockwork orange”–something that looks normal on the outside but has strange inner workings.

Kind of like that friendly smartphone in your hand right now.

In June I blogged about a disturbing trend that had begun cropping up in urban areas, including Chicago: organized robberies, looting and attacks by “flash mobs” that converged en masse at a location after being alerted via Twitter, Facebook and smartphone texting. The early reports mostly flew under the radar of media attention, and I felt somewhat paranoid for pointing out the trend. But to me it felt like the evil twin of the Twitter activity that helped spur the “Arab Spring” Middle East uprisings.

And as time would prove, that's exactly what it was. Early this month, London exploded in a four-day orgy of violence that yielded insured losses of $328 million and much more in the way of soul-searching about how and why it happened. British authorities determined that much of the coordination of the rioting and looting took place through BlackBerry Messenger, a free, instant and more covert method than Twitter.

Days later, California's Bay Area Rapid Transit took the preemptive stop of shutting down its cellphone service in an attempt to foil an organized protest that, as it turned out, never happened.

And the flash mob violence is spreading: reports from locations as seemingly benign as the Wisconsin State Fair suggest that the trend is on the rise.

It doesn't take Nostradamus to predict that these incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. Continuing high unemployment, a growing underclass, governments going broke and elected officials who clearly don't give a damn—on both sides of the pond—is a recipe for disaster.

And despite attempts by some observers to turn his into a racial issue, the London riots prove that the growing violence transcends the color bar. 

Combine these elements with disenfranchised young people and cheap, sophisticated communication technology, and you've got a lethal mix that will make 1969's Days of Rage look like Woodstock.

From an insurance agent's perspective, the issue warrants careful consideration. Just as more sophisticated loss control and ERM have evolved to address technological-related risks, new threats tied to new technology evolve right along with it.

What will business interruption cover in the London riots? What about possible lawsuits against law enforcement? Was BART right to have interrupted cell phone service in fear of a riot? Did they violate First Amendment rights by doing so? What will you tell your customers about this type of risk? You don't have to have a struggling business in Tottenham to face a flash mob: it can happen anywhere.

On a deeper level are two other issues dear to the heart of business: technology and Gen Y, and the convergence of the two.

A few short years ago, social networking was something our teenaged kids did for LOLs. Since then, it has been adopted, embraced and codified by the business world. The resulting university degree programs and full-time positions for social media managers suggest that aside from the ongoing hacking threats, business has muzzled, mastered and controlled the social media beast, that it's now our servant. The flash mob concerns suggest that the beast isn't as tame as we'd like to believe.

The other side of the equation lies with the young people who wear this technology like a second skin–who are practically microchipped with it. We love to talk about appealing to Gen Y, as both consumers and potential employees. We need them because they're smart, technologically savvy and because they're our future.

But standing right behind the successful, educated, fresh-faced Gen Y youth we all want to appeal to is Alex from “A Clockwork Orange.” Depending on your politics, he's either the victim of a failed educational and economic system or the sociopathic spawn of decades of failed socialistic entitlement programs. Alex might even have a college education, but with absolutely no prospects of getting a job.

But Alex doesn't care about your politics. He's unemployed, he has no money or prospects or any sort of a future in today's global economy. She is black, white, Hispanic, Asian. He is living in London and San Francisco and Milwaukee and in your hometown.

What she does have is a lot of time on her hands, a smartphone, and absolutely nothing to lose.

Take a good look. You'll be seeing a lot of him.