Everything Tagged with 'moral panic'
Of Riots and Revolutions
With the riots that have broken out across England continuing for a fourth night in a row, Andrew Sullivan has culled together highlights from how the United Kingdom’s major press outlets are responding to them. It’s interesting to see the wide range of ways we as human beings process and characterize events like these, as well as the motivations of those behind them. Consider, for example, the difference in these two characterizations:
They are essentially wild beasts. I use that phrase advisedly, because it seems appropriate to young people bereft of the discipline that might make them employable; of the conscience that distinguishes between right and wrong. They respond only to instinctive animal impulses — to eat and drink, have sex, seize or destroy the accessible property of others. Their behaviour on the streets resembled that of the polar bear which attacked a Norwegian tourist camp last week. They were doing what came naturally and, unlike the bear, no one even shot them for it.
It is meaningless complaining that many teenagers show no respect without appreciating the reality that they too are often treated without respect.