Strolling along the information pavements this morning I came across this
Now you’d have to have been working as Mugabe’s PR Manager not to have been swept up in the current media obsession with knife culture. Not a day goes by without some kid dying from burst organs in a London hospital and the inevitable public backlash, and appeal for change. There’ll be a cynical knife amnesty followed by a protracted, reactionary statement from the judiciary system on the increased penalties for such behaviour. Didactic government rhetoric will add to the frenzy and before you know it anyone in the rough proximity of a “yoof” starts sweating like a dyslexic on countdown.
I’ve been stabbed; it sucked and not surprisingly, hurt like a bastard.
The Burberry clad disease that attacked me did so with a steak knife, and barring the mass introduction of chopsticks, knife amnesties are never going to work.
Excuses for this problem are banded about like allegations at a John Leslie pyjama party, and most of them are just redundant rationalization. A major reason being championed at the moment is that fact that alcohol is readily available to anyone who wants it. As far as I’m concerned this one just doesn’t wash. One of the Western World’s largest drinking cultures, Australia, has knife attack figures far below that of the social decline evident in British cities. Is it then a by-product of our pseudo-liberal culture that lack of respect has created a moral vacuum, which our disaffected youth is filling with their own paradigm of social responsibility?
Respect is certainly an important factor. The youth of today are riding high on a wave of apathy, where authorities committed to multiculturalism are undermining an entire generation of endemic Brits, robbing them of culture and leaving them with no role in modern society. It’s fortunate that today we have no great war, but it is precisely these major events that bind a country together and give a nation a sense of purpose, against the greater good, so to speak.
Again there’s the possibility that our country has always been this way, and it’s the modern day evolution of media saturation that sensationalises a prevalent problem. My history is sketchy but wasn’t there a mass stabbing at Bannockburn a few years back? And was the “gun culture” of D-Day symptomatic of that generation’s alcoholism?
A cynic by nature I don’t think there’s an answer to this current stigma unless considerable changes are made to this country’s grass roots. Compulsory National Service, Capital Punishment as a deterrent and the greater education in the dangers of knife carrying have all been sited as possible solutions. In my opinion, apart from employing a Battle Royale like situation, where gangs of Chavs are carted off to an isolated location to take part in a survivalist fight to the death purely for our Big Brother-esque viewing entertainment, I don’t think this problem will ever be truly eradicated.
Much like the “Gangsta Rap,” music that the UK gun culture is derived from and contributes to, knife violence unfortunately, is here to stay.
Now you’d have to have been working as Mugabe’s PR Manager not to have been swept up in the current media obsession with knife culture. Not a day goes by without some kid dying from burst organs in a London hospital and the inevitable public backlash, and appeal for change. There’ll be a cynical knife amnesty followed by a protracted, reactionary statement from the judiciary system on the increased penalties for such behaviour. Didactic government rhetoric will add to the frenzy and before you know it anyone in the rough proximity of a “yoof” starts sweating like a dyslexic on countdown.
I’ve been stabbed; it sucked and not surprisingly, hurt like a bastard.
The Burberry clad disease that attacked me did so with a steak knife, and barring the mass introduction of chopsticks, knife amnesties are never going to work.
Excuses for this problem are banded about like allegations at a John Leslie pyjama party, and most of them are just redundant rationalization. A major reason being championed at the moment is that fact that alcohol is readily available to anyone who wants it. As far as I’m concerned this one just doesn’t wash. One of the Western World’s largest drinking cultures, Australia, has knife attack figures far below that of the social decline evident in British cities. Is it then a by-product of our pseudo-liberal culture that lack of respect has created a moral vacuum, which our disaffected youth is filling with their own paradigm of social responsibility?
Respect is certainly an important factor. The youth of today are riding high on a wave of apathy, where authorities committed to multiculturalism are undermining an entire generation of endemic Brits, robbing them of culture and leaving them with no role in modern society. It’s fortunate that today we have no great war, but it is precisely these major events that bind a country together and give a nation a sense of purpose, against the greater good, so to speak.
Again there’s the possibility that our country has always been this way, and it’s the modern day evolution of media saturation that sensationalises a prevalent problem. My history is sketchy but wasn’t there a mass stabbing at Bannockburn a few years back? And was the “gun culture” of D-Day symptomatic of that generation’s alcoholism?
A cynic by nature I don’t think there’s an answer to this current stigma unless considerable changes are made to this country’s grass roots. Compulsory National Service, Capital Punishment as a deterrent and the greater education in the dangers of knife carrying have all been sited as possible solutions. In my opinion, apart from employing a Battle Royale like situation, where gangs of Chavs are carted off to an isolated location to take part in a survivalist fight to the death purely for our Big Brother-esque viewing entertainment, I don’t think this problem will ever be truly eradicated.
Much like the “Gangsta Rap,” music that the UK gun culture is derived from and contributes to, knife violence unfortunately, is here to stay.
1 comment:
Totally agree, it's a shamefaced society that we live in today. Really thoughtful piece - you've definitely got some talent at writing ;)
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