Moral panics
cross-posted to livejournal_uk
We appear to be in the midst of a moral panic. Two people have died this week as a result of intervening in situations where kids have been acting up, but this seems to me to be a coincidence rather than an indication of something that is serious and widespread. However, I am approaching middle age, and I look back to my not-so-distant youth and think that kids were more respectful to adults. This is likely to be rubbish. I didn't mix with the kids from the rough estate down the road, and one should be wary of using personal experiences to make assumptions about social trends.
In recent times there have been moral panics about hippies, mods and rockers, football hooligans; now it is asbo youths.
It can be so tempting to join in with the moral opprobrium. I know that I could be affected by the apparent disrespect that misbehaving youths show towards adults as I have a tendency to tell them off. A while ago there was a kid outside a school down the road from me who was shaking a sapling. I told her to stop it, cautioned her to be nice to trees. She was very gobby and seemed completely flabbergasted that I had dared to tick her off. Doing that sort of thing could get me in a lot of trouble but I'm usually aware of the risks.
The part of me that is swept up by the moral panic thinks that if adults avoid telling kids off for fighting, petty vandalism and other things then kids are going to behave even more anti-socially. In my day it was all fields around here you know.
I woke early and I'm packed for BiCon already, so I wrote that.
We appear to be in the midst of a moral panic. Two people have died this week as a result of intervening in situations where kids have been acting up, but this seems to me to be a coincidence rather than an indication of something that is serious and widespread. However, I am approaching middle age, and I look back to my not-so-distant youth and think that kids were more respectful to adults. This is likely to be rubbish. I didn't mix with the kids from the rough estate down the road, and one should be wary of using personal experiences to make assumptions about social trends.
In recent times there have been moral panics about hippies, mods and rockers, football hooligans; now it is asbo youths.
It can be so tempting to join in with the moral opprobrium. I know that I could be affected by the apparent disrespect that misbehaving youths show towards adults as I have a tendency to tell them off. A while ago there was a kid outside a school down the road from me who was shaking a sapling. I told her to stop it, cautioned her to be nice to trees. She was very gobby and seemed completely flabbergasted that I had dared to tick her off. Doing that sort of thing could get me in a lot of trouble but I'm usually aware of the risks.
The part of me that is swept up by the moral panic thinks that if adults avoid telling kids off for fighting, petty vandalism and other things then kids are going to behave even more anti-socially. In my day it was all fields around here you know.
I woke early and I'm packed for BiCon already, so I wrote that.