What has happened to the Youth of today?

[tangaloomababe]

I listened with interest to the news last night, one of the headlines was about from England about an 11 year old boy who had been shot whilst riding his bike.
He had been shot by another teenager about 13 I think.

Disturbing in itself but apparently not an isolated event. This is the seventh such style of killing in England this year.

Ok I am not old, well not really old but as a teenager it would never have crossed my mind to inflict harm on another person. Ok you might say mean things as teenagers do but to kill another person I have trouble comprehending.

Where is this mentality and lack of regard for lives coming from?

[Rane Longfox]

The kid who was arrested is 16, not 13. There was another double shooting the next day, but thankfully no one was killed. Youth crime is turning into a serious problem in the UK at the moment. They're considering laws that even being in a gang will increase the possible sentance for youth offenders. I have no idea if that'll work, but it's beyond doubt that something needs to be done.
There was footage on the news the other night of teenagers throwing stones at a police car, and just last week, police arrested three men driving a van to a suspected illegal rave, and the police station came under attack from a riot mainly made up of teenagers.


I have no idea what the solution is, but let's hope there is one out there somewhere.

[tangaloomababe]

Rane you make a good point, youth have lost that respect for authority. As a child we were not only respectful of Police but also a little scared, this does not seem to be the case anymore.

[Leisha]

Ok I am not old, well not really old but as a teenager it would never have crossed my mind to inflict harm on another person.

Gang culture? Peer pressure? Alcohol? Drugs? Racism? It seems people will fight because of anything these days. Who needs an incentive?

[Rane Longfox]

They probably didn't use Opera... Browserism!

[Leisha]

Opera!

Well, that explains it, then.

[Lenny]

Heck, they probably don't even use a computer at all.

The word "Chav" springs to mind.

---

Here's something that will shock everyone. Happened last Sunday (2am) in my local area. Very sad.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Lancashire | Tribute to victim of park attack

A 15-year-old and a 17-year-old have been remanded in custody, while two 15-year-olds and 17-year-old were released on bail.

[Leisha]

That is sad.

There's a piece I heard on the local news a couple of weeks ago - it made me sad - about a distraught pigeon breeder who lost all forty of his pigeons. Apparently every bird had had their neck snapped. I mean, that's horrific. Why do that to defenceless birds? The owner said it felt like his life had come to an end. He was in tears during the interview.

Last I heard, a gang of youths were suspected of causing the attack.


Makes me sick.

[Curt Chiarelli]

This is a very complex problem. Here's a few strands of that tangled skein:

Geneticists claim that man's technological advances (which after a certain point in our history have grown at a geometric progression) have far outstripped our evolutionary capacity to handle them. We're hard-wired to desire a sense of community, a connection to our fellow species. This is something which our modern world, by its very design, seems to actively corrode in any number of critical ways. More and more people feel isolated and alienated from their fellow man. The escalating rates of suicide, depression and violent crime in our populace attests to and supports this premise.

Another significant contributing factor is the corporate stranglehold on the mindset of the populace. Since World War I great strides have been made in implementing psychology to manipulate the population to not only be obedient consumers, but to be just plain obedient. One way in which these corporate puppetmasters have left an indelibly self-destructive scar on our society has been in the way they've convinced us to think in terms of selfishness and immediate gratification.

Yet another aspect is evident in the proliferation and availability of not only firearms, but media entertainment that promotes violence as the only effective option for conflict resolution.

[HardScienceFan]

good points Curt

consumerism must have SOMETHING to do with it

[Leisha]

You know what I think every time I read Curt's posts? He reminds me of my brother-in-law. I think they'd get along so well!



Just thought I'd throw that comment in there. Carry on!

[j. d. worthington]

Not really off topic. It all ties in to what lies behind such things, and there are no simple answers to something that has been an increasing plague over the majority of the 20th century, and into the 21st. Look at the late 1940s through the 1950s, with the gang violence that was taking place then. As has been said, "gangs owned entire neighborhoods" -- people were afraid to go against them, often to go out on the streets at night. Granted, with the relatively primitive (by today's standards) weaponry, it was a walk in the park by comparison, but people nonetheless lived in fear of these kids... and the kids themselves often felt that the gang was the only place they could call home, or feel any kind of acceptance. So the alienation we see among people in general seems to hit those most susceptible to this kind of pressure especially hard, resulting in a lot of pent-up anger and frustration that strikes out at often random targets.

Another thing to add to the mix... overpopulation. Put too many people together in too small a place, and they will simply rasp on each other's nerves, pressures will build, there will be that unacknowledged hum of high-tension and violent reaction just below the surface... until finally it erupts. No simple solution will fix this problem; none ever has.

As for "respect (and/or fear) of authority".... Considering how the authorities have been going for such a long time now, are they deserving of respect? Are most parents? Kids are being taught the same values, but what they hear and what they see has become increasingly disconnected; they feel they're being lied to, taken for a ride, treated as somehow mentally deficient enough to not realize it's all a sham (at least, that's how it tends to appear), and at the same time they are bombarded with cynicism, opportunism, and all the more venal aspects of human nature almost constantly, through the media, through society in general, through family....

I'm not arguing they're guiltless -- far from it. But if you want to genuinely solve the problem rather than slap a bandaid on it by prosecuting each individual case as if it were an anomaly... then there's one hell of a tough slog ahead to get to the root of the problem and fix it... and I'm afraid the root of the problem happens to be the society we've built over the past several decades....

[Leisha]

LOL! No, I meant I was off topic. I do that... a lot.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Leisha

LOL! No, I meant I was off topic. I do that... a lot.

In case you hadn't noticed... I think it's rather de rigeur around here....

[Leisha]

Shock horror!

Are you saying we ramble?



Okay, okay, you got me!