Rather than articulate a verbose piece of social prose, I'd like to bullet point the principal events that I believe have precipitated the wanton criminality we have seen over the last few days. And what I believe will effect the collapse of our society. We are on the cusp of social failure because of a confluence of events from the last 30 or so years.
Widespread industrial action in the 70s damages the British economy and the reputation of our manufacturing base. Moreover, it leads to the downfall of Callaghan's Labour government and clears the way for Thatcher's election to power in 1979.
Thatcher's government effectively neuters the trade unions and champions privatisation of nationalised industries; coal, gas, steel etc..
Hundreds of thousands of council houses are sold to become private homes.
Corporal punishment is abolished in schools. Teachers can no longer wield deterrents such as the cane or the strap. As a direct result, the standard of behaviour in schools begins to fall.
Britain's manufacturing industry; steel, shipyards etc. falls into decline. Employment is driven to an all time high. Dole queues lengthen up and down the country. The benefits bill increases exponentially. School leavers struggle to find work. The working class family unit is under massive strain.
In an attempt to employ those school leavers who are not going on to further education, YTS schemes are launched.
Thatcher's government promotes development of the financial and service sectors to encourage economic growth.
The yuppie is born. A stark class divide is seen on a scale hitherto unknown.
Advances are made in computers and telecommunications. The car phone, mobile phone and home computer come to market.
Privatisation continues apace with British Rail being sold off in 1994 by Thatcher's successor, John Major.
Violent and overtly sexual films, music and video games proliferate.
Frequent heavy drinking becomes socially acceptable, almost a national hobby. Alcopops and other novelty alcoholic drinks flood the market. Alcohol is no longer a taboo. Booze-fuelled fights on the streets of towns and cities are more commonplace and more frequently involve drunken females.
TV becomes generally more risque with the advent of shows like the The Word and The Girlie Show.
British industry continues to decline with the loss of major employers such as GEC, Ferranti, BREL.
The Labour Government is elected to power with Blair as prime minister in 1995.
To ease unemployment, academia is dumbed down to increase the number of students able to progress through sixth form and university.
The internet flourishes and its take-up by the public is enormous. Sales of desktop and laptop computers continue to increase. The number of websites offering porn, images of mutilation and violence snowballs.
Video games such as Grand Theft Auto rise in popularity with players of similarly violent games getting younger and younger.
Gangsta rap with its vivid descriptions of inner ghetto depravation, cop killing and gang violence becomes more popular. Its imagery is shown on satellite and cable music channels.
European borders are opened allowing residents of Eurozone countries to freely gain employment in the UK. Vacancies for low paid / undesirable jobs are quickly filled.
Celebrity magazines OK, Hello etc. and reallity shows such as Cribz beam images of grandiose properties, supercars, haute-couture, decadent jewellery and high-end home electronics into the living rooms of low income families.
Shows like Pop Idol and X-Factor promote the notion that fame and wealth are within the grasp of all. Kids dream of becoming a pop star or a premiership footballer.
Credit crunch - small and medium businesses fail in their hundreds. Mortgages are harder to qualify for and minimum deposits on home loans increase and are out of the reach of many.
More job losses, pay cuts and pay freezes put pressure on government and families.
Social networks like Facebook enable the more efficient disemination of plans and thoughts. Other sites such as YouTube encourage self promotion.
Fuel prices, both for home and vehicles increase way above inflation. Food bills increase by 30-40% as the cost of all food groups increases due to a coincidence of global events.
Stop. Take a breath.
As a result of what I have described above, we have bred this so-called lost, detached generation. This disenfranchised youth. Of course, these are misnomers; convenient media tags to assign to those we saw destroying and stealing others' property on TV last night.
I believe that they were synthesised by a fusion of the social elements and events that I have tried to chronicle in this post.
This generation are not lost but they are: egocentric, lazy, over confident, disrespectful, highly materialistic, undisciplined, confrontational and violent, permissive and uncaring.
They have no work ethic, yet they desire the material things that require wages to be earned and saved. And when the opportunity arises, they will use violence and break the law to acquire their objects of desire.
Before the 1980s and Thatcherism, these kids would have been swept up by the steelworks and shipyards as riggers and labourers. The brighter ones would have been offered apprenticeships wherein they would learn a trade, earn a wage and go to college on a day release basis. And at the same time, their older, wiser colleagues would knock any apathy or badness out of them. They would gain a trade, wage to support a future family along with self respect and respect for others. And they would pass these attributes and attitudes on to their offspring.
This no longer happens. Those times are gone and cannot be re-claimed. And I genuinely fear the birth of the children borne of today's children.
How repugnant, how dangerous will they be?
there's still some nice kids out there.
