The Real Mystery
Aug. 12th, 2011 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThere'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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-14 09:40 am (UTC)I'm tempted to think there is some sort of psychological dynamic at work. Maybe accumulating wealth excessively is just a species of compulsive hoarding? It also seems obvious that for some individuals his or her self-image is bound up with how much stuff they control and, when lesser people are chipping away at it, perhaps they take it personally.
In the case of my parents, they are not rich, but hate paying taxes because they deeply resent their money being wasted on blacks especially and the poor in general. I find this rather typical of Republican voters. My sister and her husband certainly feel that way. Combined, they make about $500K per year, so again not quite rich but they have more money than I can comfortably imagine.
Truth is, I don't know why. I might as well be trying to imagine what it would be like to have a second head and a third arm.