...running riot, homes and shops and businesses destroyed, families losing everything they possess and escaping alive by jumoing from blazing buildings.
Why does the BBC described the looters and robbers as "protesters"? These are looters and robbers. They already have fashion clothing, "hoodies", trainers and all. They have "blackberry" mobiles. They have in many cases bikes or motorbikes. But they want more of these things, and are stealing them.
There are many things they lack. Fathers, family life, moral and spiritual formation, literacy skills, jobs. They have not been allowed to experience adequate discipline at school because the teachers fear physical or legal reprisals if they try to impose normal disciplinary measures. They have not been taught any real history, so they lack any sense of belonging to a nation, a community, a people with a sense of heritage and achievement. They have not been taught how to pray: they do not know of the God who loves them. They have not been taught the Ten Commandments. They have been raised in a culture of computer games - many of them violent - TV soap operas, violent films, and consumerism.
Having more police on the streets, although neccesary, will not solve these problems.
There are solutions: it is possible to teach good values by precept and example in school and community, in church and in the workplace. It is possible to support truths about marriage and family life, in schools and in youth and community organisations. It is possible to allow good ventures for the young - teaching service and neighbourliness, courage and commitment - to flourish and not be blocked by bureaucracy or ideological opposition. It is possible to support reasonable discipline in schools, to encourage good male leadership and to announce a commitment to moral and spiritual truths. It is possible to do all this without slogans and in a humble and hopeful spirit - but it will take courage and quiet faith. I wish I could feel that we had a government willing to tackle things from this basis.
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7 comments:
Thank you for this. A thoughtful post with a lot of common sense.
It is easier to destroy then to build. Things have decayed very far and very fast. If we are to rebuild our culture we had better hurry before we are cowering in our basements and listening to the barbarians ransack what is left of civilization.
When a Christian couple was denied the opportunity to be foster parents because they believed that certain sexual relations were immoral, David Cameron defended the decision by saying that "Christians should be tolerant and welcoming and broad-minded." This was an example of what Pope Benedict calls "the dictatorship of relativism" in which the ultimate value affirmed is self-expression. Perhaps the Prime Minister is now learning the limitations of tolerance. "The dictatorship of relativism" leads to "anything goes," the title of a 1930s song about the roaring 20s, and an apt summary of recent street reality.
I agree with everything you say. Christian values have done a lot to create the tolerance, fair-mindedness and the general respect for the rule of law and authority which have characterised life in this country in the past. Without those Christian values - which I believe are the glue that held our society together - then new, less worthy and more self interested values take their place and the whole edifice begins to crumble.
The riots are an extreme example of the consequences of liberal secularism - but they are also a logical consequence of it.
Auntie J you say "There are solutions:..."
I'm a little more despondent this morning. Efforts at reaching children outside the home as you describe is the correct thing to do but will be undermined within the home when they return. We can reach the children if we have a mind but they have to exist with young adults , parents who have not been touched? How do we change them, how do we change our careerist politicians? our overly liberal media consensus who set the landscape?
Wealthy & well educated cohorts, by definition a limited number,may play with individualism -casual sex, co-habitation, infidelities, planned single parenthood, divorce, voluntary euthanasia but for wider society to adopt these is a disaster.
So I fear we have to reach a point where those same cohorts will be alone, infirm and being chased on their way to "voluntary euthanasia" for the next generations to reject such a life. For the politicians and media to reflect the reality and for the community at large to support - generations if we are lucky
I saw this in the 1960's in Detroit...it has taken decades for Detroit to undo some of the harm, tolerating people who are bent on destruction has caused..Making excuses for this type of behavior only encourages it
"Why does the BBC described the looters and robbers as "protesters"?"
Because the BBC is one of the many liberal organisations that has helped bring about this situation.
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