Are we as a society basically broken?

sdooley

The American "Wall Street/Main Street" could be transposed as "High Street" here. Or perhaps the "Square Mile" will affect the "Town Square".

Journalists love catchy slogans. The dot-com crash, the Russian defaults, the Asian debt crisis all seemed too remote to affect ordinary people's sentiment (though initially at least were thought to possibly bring the West into recession). "Credit crunch" is short, snappy and sufficiently vague that it can worry anyone - we all need credit, if not for ourselves then our employers need it.

lostinrates

I agree that things are connected. I find, for example, that the feeling behind the phrase 'its business' meaning people can divorce themselves from their normal morality in the name of enterprise very unfortunate. We have a divorce generally from morality in society, and for once I agree with PP- 'good samaritans' are hugely at risk themselves and this risk - quite justifyably- terrifies many of us (me included).

I don't think societies ills are so divisible in origin as they are in classification.

neverdespairgirl

No, it's not.

We focus on the bad, and things always seem to be getting worse. But they aren't, not really. Think of the slums of Dickens' time, in Oliver Twist, for example, or the murders that took place then. Society has always seemed to be going to the dogs (-:

Phirefly

pickledpink wrote: »

And the Express, Daily Mirror, News Of The World don't then?!:rotfl:

You honestly think I believe DM to be any worse than any in that Rogues Gallery? I'm not questioning the legitimacy of the story. Simply the view that any incident is 'merely reported' in our media. And I agree with Rizla01 to a degree in his observation that theres always been base and despicable behaviour in society, only now we have a heightened awareness of it.

The media is so powerful in the UK partially because a vast element of our society laps up the sensationalism and encourages it to be so.

avinabacca

pickledpink wrote: »

What planet do you live on?????:rolleyes:

A planet where I take responsibility for the way I want things to be, and the world I want my children to grow up in.

Come on, get serious. Sixty years ago, a generation of young men fought and died bravely for a free Britain - and now you're suggesting people should be scared of addressing a few yobs and making their country better?

Think about it.

Optimisticpair

Max_Headroom wrote: »

If you look at the kind of stories you hear regularly, kids knifing other kids, people attacked in the street, old people being mugged, rising drug problems, prisons unable to cope resulting in people not going to prison when they should (and more to the point knowing that they're not going to go to prison for certain serious offences), benefit reliance (people going straight from school onto the dole and housing, via a couple of pregnancies), rising teen pregnancy, parents unwilling/unable to control or disipline their children, gangs of kids on street corners, etc etc.

You eventually have to ask, is in fact society effectively bankrupt, not just the financial system?

Is what we see happening to our financial world merely a metaphor for what's happening in society?

As Cannon Fodder suggested yes we can see many of these behaviours in history.

Go back a century or so and you can see that there was a different way of dealing with some of these "problems". Highway gangs and robbery - hanging. Sentencing even to death without fair trial. Deportation to another continent for stealing as little as a loaf of bread. The upper class on opium was accepted at the time. Teenage and single pregnancy there was no 'system' to help, and often no shame, the parents helped out or the father offered or was made to pay.

Thanks to newspapers, tv, internet we hear about the same sort of things far beyond what we would have once picked up along with the shopping locally.
Is there this level of crime everywhere though, well no, in the pockets of Britain where people help each other and teach their kids to be responsible adults there is less crime.

Phirefly

The current season of Secret Millionaire (yes I know its painfully contrived for the most part but thought-provoking nonetheless) has proved quite interesting in as much as it seems to illustrate what I have suspected all along, that one of the root causes of society's ills is a complete lack of aspiration. Kids observe utter morons being paid hundreds of thousands a week for kicking a football around or being voted least irritating of a house of total imbeciles and believe that to be the pinnacle of acheivement. They lack real-world role models.

Perhaps some of us round here who consider ourselves to be moral, motivated, model citizens should stop pontificating and perhaps try and get involved and make a difference in a more hands-on way?

pickledpink

avinabacca wrote: »

A planet where I take responsibility for the way I want things to be, and the world I want my children to grow up in.

Come on, get serious. Sixty years ago, a generation of young men fought and died bravely for a free Britain - and now you're suggesting people should be scared of addressing a few yobs and making their country better?

Think about it.

The way YOU want things to be - and the way they are in reality are two different things! And little old you ain't gonna change it!

I, like yourself, deplore crime, holliganism, bad manners etc..................but I'd certainly not want a male member of my family or friends to confront a mob of moronic, thick thugs who would think nothing of sticking a knife in someone simply because they're too imbesilic to understand the consequences.

carolt

To return the subject matter back to its inter-relationship with the economy, one can hope that ensuing financial problems may help to resolve some of these social ills, as people rediscover the value of thrift, hard work etc - more of the WWII spirit.

I hope?

avinabacca

pickledpink wrote: »

The way YOU want things to be - and the way they are in reality are two different things! And little old you ain't gonna change it!

Well done - you've neatly encapsulated (in a way more elegant than I ever could) exactly why Britain is "broken", as the tabloids would have it.

Congratulations. You now have the country you deserve.