Why is there no looting in Japan?

Telegraph ^ | March 14, 2011

[Ken H]

Correction: We had a generally law-abiding black population prior to the 1960s.

[ltc8k6]

Why did you direct that at me? I said some people would say that about the Japanese. I didn’t say I thought so.

So, what was I wrong about?

[agrace]

"Our society as a whole" is a term I expect from junk social scientists.

In this case it's a generalization that's legitimately made. Just because some demographics have fallen farther than others doesn't mean that all demographics didn't decline over the past half century. I grew up in middle class white America and now have 3 kids under the age of 15. Things are much worse now than they were when I was their ages (no matter where one lives; I have lived all over the Northeast in small towns to big cities and several small cities in between) and you can't argue with the notion that there have been very negative cultural changes across the board.

We had a generally law-abiding black population prior to the 1950s.

Exactly my point. So what changed it?

The Great Society subsidized sloth and irresponsible behavior and it overwhelmingly affected black families and communities.

Bingo, THAT's what changed it. Because our entitlement society born of liberalism (which came out of modernism, communist collectivism, moral relativism and progressive education) targeted our black citizens with social programs and repeatedly told them over and over that America itself was their biggest problem. Some did this for completely innocent ideological reasons while others were downright insidious - the eugenics beliefs of Planned Parenthood founders, for example, or the low down dirty tactics of selfish vote-seeking politicians. But regardless, the political landscape of the past century - first through post-slavery racism and then through post-civil rights indulgence - has had a devastating effect on our largest minority.

In no way does this understanding diminish personal responsibility or accountability, which I believe is the backbone of conservative thought. I believe, also, that you and I agree more than you might think. And Bill Cosby has it exactly right.

For anyone who's interested, here's a long but interesting article and a couple books I have found to be extremely informative with regard to putting things into proper historical perspective are Grand Illusions by George Grant and Unfounded Loyalty by Wayne Perryman.