Listening or watching some of the images coming out of our major cities over the past couple of nights, you may be forgiven in thinking that the world has gone mad. The rioting sounds more akin to French famers or Middle Eastern teenagers than our green and pleasant land.
I love working with young people and young adults and I will not condon the personal choices made by all those involved in the recent disturbances. However, we too, all, have contributed to what has led to these riots.
For too long we have allowed our children to be known as youths. For too long we have allowed cynical marketing and government policies to define young people as a social group with its own culture. For too long we have tried to bundle all our young people through a narrow education system where the only ways are success or drop out. For too long we have marginalised young people from the work place and dispensed with jobs and roles that allow them to access the experience they need. For too long many parents have allowed their children to grow up without boundaries or discipline and allowed our young people to be brought up by themselves and professionals, like me, and the underlying victim mentality that that brings.. For too long we as a society have believed the hype about ‘young people’ and this is the inevitable result.
Young people are not capable of handling the freedom we have given them, without the boundaries and upbringing which allows them to make sensible decisions. They are a mirror shining back on us the experience and learning they have received.
What we are seeing now in London, has no political cause. No great moto or movement behind it. It is a rabble seeking after the consumerism and go get it attitude that we have allowed to develop in our country. It is a mass eruption of frustration and disengagement that would not exist in a society that truly valued and understood equality. However, it is their choice and they must take responsibility for it.
