This morning I was unable to get a copy of the Independent so I bought the Guardian instead, along with the Times. There seemed to be quite a consensual theme today that young people get pissed too much and turn into violent hordes and something must be done!
What I personally found most interesting about the coverage is that amongst all the solutions and explanations no one really, at least for me, seemed to hit the nail on the head for why it has happened. Sure, I think raising the age of purchasing alcohol to 21 'might' have an impact simply because a shop keeper's excuse that "they looked 18" become harder when it has to be "they looked 21" - at least in my personal view it does.
Having said this, the only problem with such a move could be the sort of situation that exists in the US today where youngsters reach that age and get out of their head then instead. You just move the problem of getting wrecked a few years, although you would hope that the maturity of say a 19/20 year-old drinking for the first time (because they look 21) is more advanced than a 14/15 year-old so they won't end up stabbing someone or beating them to death.
However, this still doesn't answer the question of why it has happened. For me personally, I think it's the unintended consequences of many things we have done over the past few decades. To fix it does not mean we have to reverse those things necessarily, but we do need to pause and think about them rather than just applying a Band Aid to the situation.
For example, in the immediate past I would say that the introduction of "human" rights into our national statute (rather than just being in the Convention) as had an impact. A human right is a right conferred on anyone with the quality of being human after all. This means everyone from a baby upwards. Youngsters today, as a result of the human rights agenda permeating through the media, are not that stupid to not realise that they are can apply the rights to themselves.
Added to this you have the dominance of negative liberties - the freedom from - which are enshrined in human rights legislation. This leads youngsters to say "you can't touch me" etc. Then we have paedophile panic which leads to adults fearing to intervene, and kids that are astute enough to make spurious claims in reverse - "don't touch me you paedo!"
Also the dominance - dare I say - of multiculturalism has had an impact. Not should I add multiculturalism itself, but more the mode of philosophical thought that runs beneath it which promotes equivalence. This dominance of relativism, which started out as a school of thought in the philosophy of science and has found itself applied to culture and worse morality, has permeated through society right down to the youth, I'd say.
The result is that many kids today have no respect for the notions of right and wrong, because the dominant belief is that such concepts are only relative to the observer of them. Therefore what is right for me may not be right for someone else. If the adult world says that everything is relative is it any wonder that an increasing number of kids are growing up nihilists?
The slow decline of youth organisations - which has been driven by paedophile panic as well - has had an impact too, as has been the removal of National Service. That is not say National Service should be brought back, but its cultural impact on discipline and respect amongst peers in society cannot be ignored I think. The idea of a Policeman giving a kid a clip round the ear too is gone, for that is "abuse", or even worse "police brutality".
Put simply, the whole issue of "feral youth" today is of our own making over time. Unless we stop and acknowledge the interconnection of our actions, we will just be applying bandages to a gangrenous wound.
18 comments:
Yep, spot on.
And the infantilisation of our youth is a factor as well, I think; under the guise of 'protecting' the young by measures such as raising driving age, school leaving age and now drinking age (proposed) we're enshrining levels of child-like emotional intelligence at times when their bodies are telling them to breed, fight and drink with the men (well not breed with the men, as such but you know what I mean..)
Surely the link between constantly depriving the young of self-responsibility and the increase of irresponsible behaviour is obvious to anyone? Except our legislators, of course.
Kids are like dogs. They can smell fear.
Maybe you have a point about relativism but I think that is inevitable now. With global communications and the internet it's easy to find examples of opposing groups who are equally adamant that they are in the right but who can't both be 'right' in an absolute sense. Hence relativism.
That's not necessarily a problem so long as those who act in a relatively outrageous manner find themselves relatively punished or imprisoned.
As for yute orgs - I understood groups like the Guides were actually making a comeback because parents are anxious for kids to play in a safe environment.
National Service? What we really need is a war! But it has to be the right sort of war. Wars against powerful enemies (like WWII) unite society. Wars against weak enemies (like Iraq) are divisive. Only kidding - there must be a better way surely??
I am confused. The problem with kids today is due to negative liberties, the bastion of absolutism, and cultural relativism, its polar opposite?
I didn't say cutlural relatvism, but I did say it was the unintended consequences of an amalgam of things.
I just don't see that drinking age laws are the solution, even if there is a problem.
Here in the US, the draconian lengths to which the government has to go to enforce the drinking age of 21 are pretty ridiculous. Of course, people under 21 are still getting drunk, but it seems pretty absurd to me that the effort is even made.
I fail to understand why the significant majority who aren't the problem should be penalised for the behaviour of those who are. And what the hell are they trying to do to the traditional growing-up experience that we all had? Patronising bastards.
"I would say that the introduction of "human" rights into our national statute (rather than just being in the Convention) as had an impact. A human right is a right conferred on anyone with the quality of being human after all".
There, I knew you would come around to my way of thinking that prisoners are humans and entitled to the human right to vote.
JailHouseLawyer, you misunderstand, I'm not saying I agree with that analysis, I'm saying that's actually the problem with it. I'm not a fan of "human" rights, because they muddy the water which was the point I was making. Hence I don't think prisoners should have the right to vote at all. Sorry to piss on your fire.
I think you have some serious points. Human rights as a doctrine and a principle appear to be divorced from popular understanding and legal interpretation, such that the 'you can't touch me' retort that you mention is commonplace.
Similarly multiculturalism had some laudable aims associated with liberalism but the weakness of its philosophical underpinning (relativism, privileging group over individual) has lead to an unsatisfactory implementation into policy (single-group funding, masking intra-group inequality).
But there are other things. There is an idea that there is a crisis of adulthood. These days, partly for the reasons above, adults do not step-in if kids are misbehaving . The media age and the test orientated education system encourage kids to grow up as quick as possible; they become adults by 16 or 17. Then, at 25/30 when they realise that adulthood as a series of mild disappointments and partial pleasures and long for their youth. This is epitomised by clothing and hobbies - a 16 year old that is pissing about on a street corner is hardly going to have any respect for let alone listen to some mumbling middle-age man in converse all stars and a cardigan riding on a skateboard or scooter. Furthermore, converse scooter man knows this so bows his head, tuts quietly, gets his Latte and goes on his way.
Rights are worth nothing compared with freedom. "They" take away our liberties and "confer" the rights that they think we ought to have. It is no exchange.
For trivial offences - vandalism in the street, etc - there need to be sudden and severe punishments: birching and that sort of thing. Some city centres could do with death squads.
For some reason I feel like I am just waiting for someone to appear and say "When I lived in the East End in the 1960s it wasn;t like this. The Krays were criminals but at least grannies were safe"
Apart from grannies with an interest in crime. They were pretty screwed.
I once read something that likened parents to being a scratching post for kids to sharpen the claws on. Take that away and they go for other things which often cause a hell of a lot more damage to themselves and others.
Theodore Dalrymple,s , life at the bottom is what nails the issue for me. wrote 8 years ago and roughly foretells the current continuing decline.
Ideas spread down from the top thru policy and attitudes, philosophies, there biggest effects are at the bottom end of society where parenting is by default a lot harder.
to do list
Step 1, go into the universities as sack 80% of the social scientists.
Step 2, get rid of the entitlement and rights culture.
Step 3, Government policy across all areas of government to support the IDEAL of the nuclear family.
Step 4. wait 30 years and hope we did not do it too late
Well I'm no bleeding heart but I do think we are in danger of turning kids into monsters by virtue of our semantics at the very least.
It's possible that the increase in bandwidth means we hear more about what these 'feral monsters' get up to and so the whole thing is intensified. On the other hand is is naive not to expect that in a world where there is a great deal of conflict it might not filter through to the grass roots.
Living in the UK (I have lived in other places) I notice there is not much personal or community responsibility. If you can't discipline a kid in school then you send the first of many messages that they can do anything they wish. Yes we need to give them their heads but we also need to give them parameters. The two work together and right now we have neither.
Sadly the argument continues to centre around rights. They do do not exist without responsibilities.Full stop!!!!!
Not for the first time PJ O'Rouke hits the nail on the head here!!
Where is the balance between rights and resposibilities? PJ says there is only one human right with only one human responsibility.
You have the right to do whatever you want. HOWEVER, you have the responsibility to bear, in FULL, the consequences of your actions.
C'est ca. C'est Fin. C'est la guerre.
Jailhouse lawyer will no doubt have some pre-prepared probation lawyer response prepare before I even go to bed.
Rights can never truly exist without concommitant responsibilities, without responsibilities they merely become demands.
Easy to get rid of the problem.
1. Start breeding again. So children are not little emporers. But they should be seen and not heard.
2. Knock on the head that children deserve self esteem.
They should earn it.
3. Bring back big brothers and big sisters.
The solution was identified over 20 years ago by Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson: just cut off their goolies.
What Kids need is calibration and preferably some better advice on what is and is not on during/following calibration mistakes.
A nation of quiet drunks - like we were back in the day - would not be bothering sanctimonious coppers trying to make their job easier by making everyone else's life harder.
Esther Rantzen was on R5 last night talking to that boshy young Irishman. Sounds at least 50 as he grumbles and moans. But he is only 35.
So he couldn't remember mods and rockers, skins and greasers and all that drunken culture we had. So as far as he was concerned years ago no-one got drunk and everyone respected authority.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Though of course the drink like the skunk weed is soooo much stronger these days.
Again, not true. WKD in Newquay today is less not more strong than the Barley Wine, Scotch and Ginger or Rum and Black or Rum and Orange with which under age drinkers calibrated in the olden days.
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