(Untitled)

[myname_nick]

"Regularly now, we hear about young men shooting each other and sometimes shooting their own girlfriends as a response to what they call "disrespect". The misuse of the word "disrespect" is just a pitiful sign of the vicious stupidity by which young men demand to be respected when there is nothing to respect them for."

Comments

[ieatmoths]

It seems a lot of people are running around out there with a strange idea of logic. Just wish there was anything we could do to stop them, save some sort of Big Brother mass brainwash action. (maybe gun control. yeah, probably that would help)

[myname_nick]

The same article went on to say "But when the upmarket newspapers run worried articles about what they call "the gun culture", that is something else.

Calling it "the gun culture" not only solves nothing, it actually compounds the offence, by tacitly conceding that the responsible authorities can't be expected to confiscate the lethal weapons from the individual boneheads waving them, but should wait until a complex sociological phenomenon has been explained in the appropriately elevated words."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6374171.stm

this related article interested me for the same reason.

[ieatmoths]

"They don't want to do the things that they do - but they have to be done."

...riiiight. I suppose in a way I'm in the defense of calling it a 'gun culture', but not to the extent of leniency. We need both fronts - take them away from the boneheads and THEN try to figure out why on earth they feel it necessary to live like that. Maybe I'm just curious what kind of person would call murder a reasonable factor of existence. Not that explaining it would solve anything in the short term, but maybe talking to them in their own language would go further than vague threats from the Man (who's probably an almost fictional villain to them).

[myname_nick]

When the only thing stopping you from being just another victim on the mean streets of wherever is a gang of gun toting morons, when what option does even an intelligent person really have. This kid obviously isn't stupid, probably a lot less stupid and with a lot more faith than most of his gangmates, but I can't imagine how hard it is to break out, let alone exist in an enviroment like that.

I live in a nice area in London, real nice, and yet, i've been threatened with stabbings by the local gang for nothing more than being male. Said idiots have now been removed after, in part, I gave a very nice description of them, but the point remains, how do you even protect yourself in an enviroment like that. Humans are pack animals.

[ieatmoths]

True, I do forget that it isn't a case of decision, for the most part. I've lived exceptionally free from organized violence, so it's not something I really understand... and maybe it is a case of gender, as I DO know that near every guy I know has been all but forced into some sort of altercation

[myname_nick]

Whoops, I read this originally and left it, on the basis that it deserved an intelligent reply that I was unable to give at the time, then promptly forgot about it.

At this point I will cirtinly agree with the dodgeball, or any other sport really as they are taking them off the streets and channeling their testostorone and competative urges while also, as you say, lending the sense of comradship and the security that brings from being on a team.