The Real Mystery

[poliphilo]

There's no mystery about why the kids did what they did.

The young crave excitement, lack empathy (it's to do with brain chemistry), have a huge sense of entitlement, despise their elders. 

So they smash things up. Everything from bus shelters to social conventions. Some of which is good. 

We've all been there, but we forget- or we cast a retrospective glamour over our youthful shittiness. 

I didn't burn and loot high street shops, but I did things that were, morally speaking, just as bad. Bet you did too.

There's no need to bring poverty into the equation. The PM, the Chancellor and the Mayor of London used to be in a gang called the Bullingdon Club. Their schtick was to get very, very drunk, trash restaurants and assault passers-by.  None of them was poor.

Usually there are restraints in place to keep youthful mischief-making within bounds- to keep the outrages small-scale and local.  For some reason they just failed. 

Why? Why now? That's the real mystery.

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I stole bikes and busted street lights when I was a teenager. That - I hope - does not make me a bad person...

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

Uh, yes. It does. It certainly made you a bad person at the time. If you don't do it any more, and have made some kind of reparations for what you did (at least by having the decency to feel bad about it), then perhaps you're not anymore.

Why do you even need to ask? Is stealing bikes and smashing street light somehow acceptable child behaviour? Youthful hijinks?

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I'm not even going to attempt a justification. Because, really... Being drunk is my best justification, and that hardly - if at all - counts for anything.

My point was: If I've performed careless and inconsiderate acts in my past, does this make me a bad person? I will go all biblical on you and say He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. I cannot cast stones at the rioters, as I suspect you cannot cast stones at me.

What we CAN do, though, is to look at the causes of this behaviour and see it it is at all possible to make structural changes to society that might affect the situation and diminish the odds of it happening again.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Most of us did things like that. And probably felt righteous about it at the time.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I once stood by and watched other children throwing stones at the (already badly dilapidated) "leaded light" roof of a disused Victorian warehouse/factory, below the hill on which we stood.
I did nothing to stop them, was merely fascinated by the excellent aim of some at the tiny "lights". When the police arrived, it never occurred to me to do anything but stand my ground and give my name and address.
I was fascinated by the skill, and quite unconscious that damaging something that was already falling down might be a crime. I suspect that the main reason that I didn't join in was that my aim would have been so appalling - but I also think that "throwing things" (other than in the garden or on a sports field) was a deeply embedded prohibition.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I once threw a discarded chip wrapper into someone's neat front garden to show my contempt for the "Bourgeoisie".

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I can't stop laughing.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

"It just blew aht me 'and, sir!"?

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

That may be, but aren't they pretty obviously bad things that shouldn't have done? Or should people just tolerate it, with whole neighborhoods living in fear, because that's just what kids do, and there's no point trying to stop them?

I have a hard time buying that line. It may be what kids want to do, but that doesn't mean they should be allowed to, or get away with it if they do.