Posted on 08/18/2011 10:14:45 PM PDT by neverdem
Young Westerners — Deprived or Decadent or What?
The recent lawlessness is the product not of too little government, but too much.
A once civil and orderly England was torn apart by rioting and looting last week — at first by mostly minority youths, but eventually by young Brits in general. This summer, a number of American cities have witnessed so-called “flash mobs” — mostly African-American youths who swarm at prearranged times to loot stores or randomly attack those of other races and classes. The mayhem has reignited an old debate in the West: Are such criminally minded young Americans and Britons turning to violence in protest over inequality, poverty, and bleak opportunities?
The Left often blames cutbacks in the tottering welfare state and high unemployment. In this view, the havoc and mayhem visited upon us are a wake-up call in an age of insolvency: Do not cut entitlements or we will reap the whirlwind. Instead, tax the affluent and redistribute more of their earnings to those who have been unfairly deprived.
The Right counters that the problem is not too few state subsidies, but far too many. The growing — and now unsustainable — dole of the last half-century has eroded self-reliance and personal initiative. The logical result is a dependent underclass that spans generations and becomes ever unhappier and more unsatisfied the more it is given from others. The rioters were not fighting for survival. Today’s looters have plenty to eat. That is why they target sneaker and electronics stores — to enjoy the perks of life they either cannot or will not work for.
We might at least agree on a few facts behind the violence. First, much of the furor is because poverty is now seen as a relative, not an absolute, condition. Per capita GDP is $47,000 in the U.S. and $35,000 in Britain. In contrast, those rioting in impoverished Syria (where per capita GDP is about $5,000) or Egypt (about $6,000) worry about going to bed hungry or being shot for expressing their views — not about wanting a new BlackBerry or a pair of Nikes. Inequality, not Tiny Tim–like poverty, is the new Western looter’s complaint.
So when President Obama lectures us about fat cats with corporate jets, he doesn’t mean that wealthy people’s greed prevents the lower classes from flying on affordable commercial jets — only that a chosen few in luxury aircraft, like himself, reach their destinations a little more quickly and easily. The lament today is not having what someone richer has — instead of lacking elemental shelter, food, or electricity. The problem is not that the bath water in Philadelphia is not as hot as in Martha’s Vineyard, but that the conditions under which it is delivered are, in comparison, far more basic and ordinary.
Second, the wealthy have not set an example of hard work and self-discipline leading to well-deserved success and the good life. Recently, a drunken, affluent young prospect for the U.S. ski team urinated on a sleeping eleven-year-old during a transcontinental flight. And the more the psychodramas of drones like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, or some members of the British royal family, become headline news, the more we see boredom and corruption among the pampered elite. The behavior of John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or Arnold Schwarzenegger does not teach us that good habits on the part of elite public figures follow from well-deserved riches and acclaim — but rather that with today’s wealth and power often comes license and decadence.
Third, Communism may be dead, but Marxist-inspired materialism still measures the good life only by equal access to “things.” We can argue whether those who loot a computer store are spoiled or oppressed. But even a person in faded jeans and a worn T-shirt can find all sorts of spiritual enrichment at no cost in either a museum or a good book. Have we forgotten that in our affluent postmodern society, being poor is often an impoverishment of the mind, and not necessarily the result of a cruel physical world?
Finally, there is far too much emphasis on government as the doting, problem-solving parent. What made Western civilization rich and liberal was not just free-market capitalism and well-founded constitutional government, but the role of family, community, and church in reminding the emancipated individual in an affluent society that he should not always do what he is legally permitted to. Destroy these bridles, ridicule the old shame culture of the past, and we end up with unchecked appetites — as we are now witnessing from smoldering London to the flash mobs of Wisconsin.
Our high-tech angry youths are deprived not just because their elders put at risk their future subsidies, but also because they were not taught what real wealth is — and where and how it is obtained and should be used.
— NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.
It is my opinion that the children of welfare society’s feel trapped.
They have all kinds of assistance, but have mamas that teach them “this is your life”
They hate who they are and they lash out against the evil rich.
I don’t know how to put it in words, but our underclass is going to erupt in 2012 when Obama is defeated.They feel helpless with no prospects for jobs, and others feel shame that they haven’t been raised with the aspiration of jobs, so they lash out at anyone that has “More”
We are sitting on a powder keg her in America.
Wittiness the flashmobs.
These flashmob kids all have 4g and iphones, they have xbox, AC, a roof and food, but they have no HOPE.
Obama is a dismal failure.
These rioters have a three word mantra regardless if race: “It Ain’t Fair”.
And the truth is, they’re right: it ain’t fair.
“They have all kinds of assistance, but have mamas that teach them “this is your life””
Such is the crux of my life; let me share a part of my life with you.
When I was growing up I was basically brought up to have little to no expectations that I was going to do well. It wasn’t that something was wrong with me, but I grew up conditioned to not make much of myself for some odd reason or another. So, I have gone through life struggling all the time against it and now I’m on SSD.
Here’s the kicker; during the past two/three years I have been fianlly breaking the thought pattern and making something of myself. I’m on SSD right NOW, but I recently began work on brokering a deal for an investment client I found through networking and then it’s only a matter of time until I end up sealing the deal and getting millions in commission. The problem has not enitrely been me, but my upbringing and parents who have brought me up to be nothing, not something.
Well, my mother died in May 2010 ( a blessing since she was very unstable and negative ) and I am breaking away from my father’s control (he married my domineering stepmother when I was six) and I know now that if I’m going to lead a healthy, productive life, I am going to have to end up moving away from him. Put frankly, I know how these kids feel. They have the ability, they just constantly have people trying to ‘put them in their place’ and keep them there.
All I do know is that there are too many people fixated on ‘staying in their place’ and many parents who led disappointed lives and for some reason, don’t want their children to lead happy and productive ones as a result. They are actively sabotaging their children becacuse of their disappointments in life and don’t wnat their kids to have what they didn’t.
No one told them that life in general isn’t fair and you have to sacrifice in order to get what you want.
These kids are given none of the benefits of civilization (e.g. literacy, a moral code, economic opportunity). They are essentially feral human beings who live in a cage of poverty, ghettos, and government. It is unrealistic to expect them to behave in a civilized manner, when they've never actually seen a working real-life example of how it is done.
They condition us to be content with crumbs, And they also condition us to hate anyone that has more.
Good luck with your venture.
In general, I believe you are correct.
There ate one million young people in Madrid right now, most of whom raised thousands of dollars on their own, to see the Pope.
No violence, zero drama, one million in one place, just to hear the message of how to conduct their lives in a good way. No interest in GOOD youth. But they are there and they are together this week.
EWTN is covering it.
No one else is covering it.
One million (no celebrity can draw that size crowd)
compared to two thousand in London.
Not a blip.
ate=are
Phooey
The press DID cover it—but there focus (the press I saw) was on the people who were protesting because of the economic cost to the people in Spain—they were mad that the Pope was coming because they had to pay a lot for the security.
Our press glorifies the dysfunctional (since Jerry Springer and Kinsey) and they disparage and ridicule anything Christian or Orthodox Jewish. They have been trying to destroy morality since Marcuse and the Universities kicked out the Classics in the 60’s which teach Honor, Courage, Duty and Wisdom. They put in The Beats and dysfunctional, illiterate “books” like ones that glorify gang rapes and girls masturbating or boys -—or like Burrough’s who writes about sodomizing “hanging boys”.
The intellectual Marxist elites (Marcuse) have been intentionally corrupting the children with the curricula—to kill all morality and create entitlements and victimhood (Sex Ed is put into curricula to destroy sexual morality (Eakman)—so they will have ACORN type thugs—mobs to destroy the society so they can take total control.
Kids who get involved in sex early have difficulty with family, never have long lasting relationships are disloyal, superficial, and shiftless, and their kids are stupid and uncivil with no healthy role models. Herbert Marcuse and their sick homosexual mafia who frequent the Bohemian Grove (Kissinger) want to redesign man and destroy the family unit-—so they can create total chaos and use mankind and the world as their playground. They are evil.
“Feral human beings” - great description.
Bump for later
Now that Marxism is a proven lie, and with Obama soon to be tossed out on his big ears, there will indeed be wholesale rioting.
The failure of socialism and redistribution of wealth is now so demonstrable, there is growing despair that opportunity demands you get off your ass and work. They don't like having to work.
Obama was supposed to pay their car loans and put gasoline in their cars.
“I don’t know how to put it in words, but our underclass is going to erupt in 2012 when Obama is defeated.They feel helpless with no prospects for jobs, and others feel shame that they haven’t been raised with the aspiration of jobs, so they lash out at anyone that has “More” “
I think every group in the US is hoping for a real change, and it is obvious to all that Obama’s change is not for the better. The flash mobs are a great example of what our underclass acts like with Obama in office; he’s made it clear that he expects no improvement on the jobs front (the dopey ATM comment was to me his first indication that he knew the job market would remain stagnant for some time). The underclass has no choice but to accept whatever the state provides them, regardless of which party is in power; for the most part any threat is limited to the urban minority reservations. These flash-mobs seem to be happening only in areas where these “youth” have been before.
Just my tag. Says it all.
Susie, you have explained it perfectly. That is exactly what is going on and they ARE evil. Marxism is about destruction, period. Once they have destroyed a society in order to install their philosophy they then destroy themselves.
Marxism proposes that the masses will rise up in rebellion against those who have more, but the masses don’t rise up unless lied to and agitated to do so. That is what we are seeing.
Black Liberation Theology is a big part of the agitation and it is preached in most black churches.
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