Britain Is Creating Youths Who Have Nothing to Lose by Crime
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Minette Marrin, London Times, July 13, 2008
Personal responsibility was the political buzzword of last week. The prime minister urged us to take personal responsibility for global waste, poverty and pollution by eating up our greens—I hope he himself left a clean plate after consuming his 57 varieties of high-status food at the G8.
Less absurdly, David Cameron spoke of personal responsibility at a by-election launch in the miserable depths of Glasgow’s Gallowgate about “broken” Britain. It is a society, he said, that is “in danger of losing its sense of personal responsibility, social responsibility, common decency and yes, even public morality”.
It is remarkable that a Conservative politician can now talk like this without being ridiculed. No one disagrees any longer that Britain is in parts and in places broken; Gallowgate is a horrifying microcosm of broken families, broken spirits, broken health and broken schools; it is a dark place of chronic unemployment, violence and crime, of disorder and fear—a disgrace to the supposedly developed world.
It’s also true that at long last people of all persuasions are beginning to recognise that this social breakdown is due in part to the abdication both of authority and of personal responsibility that began some time after the war. Some are inclined to emphasise the demoralising paternalism of the welfare state, others the permissiveness of the 1960s, but few now question this abdication, at all levels. Not only that—taking personal responsibility is sometimes forbidden, or punished, as when misguided adults try to control delinquent children in the street.
However, while personal responsibility and shared morality are essential to a good society and the only glue for a broken one, neither can be had just by whistling for them. Both depend on an instinctive sense of a social contract. Conventional morality is meaningless to a boy who has nothing whatsoever to gain by good behaviour. Personal responsibility means nothing if you have grown up neglected, abused and powerless among adults who hardly know what it is and feel powerless themselves.
Cameron said in Glasgow that “social problems are often the consequences of the choices that people make”. There’s truth in that and a truth that has been wilfully neglected for decades. But the countervailing truth is that free choice—and real personal responsibility—barely exist for some people, least of all for those who are most likely to cause problems.
Take knife crime, an emblem of what is wrong with British society. Imagine the history of a boy who gets a knife and might well use it. I always think of Jo, a Notting Hill boy I used to know, but there are countless others like him. Everything that happened to Jo could have been designed to turn him into a social menace.
He came here from Latin America with his single mother, “for the NHS”, he told me. His mother worked in a bar here and produced other children with other men, with whom she shared a council flat. Jo and his brother lived on their own, as young schoolboys, in another council flat.
He went, sometimes, to a notorious school where he learnt nothing but, being bright and charismatic, he became a leader of others in the street. He turned to petty crime and then to worse; drug running or dealing is the usual activity round here. He became a notorious bully and actually tortured some boys I knew of to stop them giving evidence against him in court; the case collapsed. Having impregnated a girl he was later removed by social services to some other unlucky borough.
The point of this all-too-common story is the damage that was done to Jo from his earliest years. It is not to excuse his crimes or the damage he has done to others. My own son has been mugged many times and not long ago called me from A&E in the Mile End Road, east London, where he was being stitched up by a doctor; a group of youths had attacked him, beaten him and slashed his head open with a beer can. So I do not feel soft on street crime; it terrifies me.
However, I do believe that boys like Jo are in an impossible position. Either they are so damaged by early neglect—and there is a lot of evidence that neglected babies fail to develop, cognitively or emotionally—and so led astray by delinquent parenting that they are incapable of living an orderly life or holding down a job.
Libraries of research have been done into this. For babies and young children, a failure to bond with their mothers, or constant separation anxiety, lack of attention and stimulation or actual abuse do permanent damage to the brain, just as bad parenting and lack of good male role models do other kinds of damage. Two common outcomes are a lack of empathy and impaired impulse control, both of which are associated with violent crime. Such children may be very much less capable of personal responsibility, or of rational choice, than children from more normal homes.
Alternatively for bright, ambitious boys such as Jo, hungry for life’s much advertised pleasures but too illiterate and unemployable to earn them, crime does seem a rational choice. “The world is not thy friend,” Romeo said to the poverty-stricken apothecary as the way to persuade him to commit the crime of selling poison.
What can anyone in youth offender rehabilitation schemes offer such boys as an alternative—shelf-stacking at a supermarket, cleaning the streets, the contempt of his peers? For a young, vital, angry man an Asbo often seems better than Asda. A criminal conviction means almost nothing to someone who has almost nothing to lose but his benighted freedom.
Morality depends on having something to lose. It isn’t just a matter of learning right from wrong, least of all in a post-religious society. Morality is socially constructed. I will respect your property and your person because I want you to respect mine. We both have something to lose. One does not have to be educated in political philosophy to understand that ancient deal. But if I have neither property nor respect from anyone, what’s in the deal for me?
That is Jo’s problem. Neither an appeal to morality nor the threat of a community sentence or the brutalities of jail—90% of prisoners are mentally ill—will solve it for him. Nor will any of that solve the problems he presents to the rest of us. It seems to me heartless to suggest that it might.
(Posted on July 14, 2008)
Comments
It used to be “See Naples and die!” Now it is see Britain and die”, either stabbed, shot or kicked to death in public by feral youths.
Thank God we now live in Spain where family and the laws is still respected. But some British expats. here admit to now being ashamed of being British due to the deterioration of the British way of life.
Te sad thing is that when you see pictures of those who are caught and charged or who are victims, most by far are not native Brits.
Posted by B J Deller at 6:53 PM on July 14
“On an instinctive sense of a social contract” Just yesterday I was looking for a place to buy cheap hay about twenty miles out of town and was hopelessly lost. I pulled up to three men, younger than me, who were firing all matter of weapons into the brush with even more guns splayed across the hood of their truck. I pulled over with complete confidence and motioned them to come over to the car. Asked them where I was and they told me where I needed to go. My truck was a lot nicer than theirs and my wallet was probably fatter too. Driving away I realized just how big a part race plays in that social contract.
Posted by Tim Mc Hugh at 6:53 PM on July 14
Read this one as well:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/youth-killings-this-is-london-860863.html
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:55 PM on July 14
Minette Marrin, you wouldn’t be troubled with such anguished moral fretting of Jo and his mother had simply been kept out of Britain to begin with.
Posted by HideouslyWhite at 7:57 PM on July 14
A side-effect of “We are all equal”, slow though it may be in coming, is the denial of any form of authority.
You dont know any better than me, because we are all equal says the dumb, the young, and the minorities.
Sad part is, it will take as long to get out of it as it took to get into it. And thats assuming brits have the gumption to turn it around.
Posted by at 7:57 PM on July 14
Britain did not have slavery, but that has had no effect on the criminality of Caribbeans. As for Latinos and others coming en masse, Britain is definitely not the sort of place that would foster assimilation on a ‘good’ day. The country is snobbish, which is fine, but this makes it especially conducive to creating an outsider mentality among immigrants. In 1979, my sweet and unassuming British girlfriend was alarmed at the immigration wave, particularly among Africans coming from the former British colonies there. knowing it would not work out. She was a supporter of the NF, and I wish people had listened. All hell has started to break loose and I truly wish the British good luck. I do; they will need it.
Posted by ActionPotential at 8:06 PM on July 14
To B. J. Deller:
About how many ex-British subjects now live in Spain? I ask this, as I ponder the irony of it all. You live in Spain, which used to be the stronghold of Francisco Franco. During the time of his regime, you Brits undoubtedly thought his Spain was a miasma of slop and sewage, while the sun never set on the British Empire.
At least Franco kept Spain for the Spanish. He never would have imported the Caribes, Pakis, and Bengalis to sweep the streets of Madrid, or drive taxicabs in Barcelona.
Now Britain is becoming what you all thought the Franco regime was, since 1939. Don’t get me wrong - I’m no apologist for Franco. Millions died in Spain’s civil war, but face it, Arzana was a Bolshevik puppet. So the Spanish had a choice between the left-wing oppressors, and the right-wing oppressors. Some choice.
But D. J. Keller, now that you’re in Spain, do as the Spanish - face to the sun!
Posted by Soprano Fan at 8:16 PM on July 14
“It used to be “See Naples and Die!”-BJ Deller
Thanks for the memories Mr. Deller. My Dad used this as his personal tagline for over fifty years till his death. He would always add, “And I almost did…”
“It will take as long to get out of it as it did to get into it.”-7:57PM
One of the few valuable things I learned in night school was that personal health and solvency was best described as a process, it mattered not so much where you were at that moment, but that you were headed in the right direction and had the will and strategies to continue to do so.
Posted by Tim Mc Hugh at 8:36 PM on July 14
It is basically a racial thing. Just like American liberals, British liberals attacked the schools, police, council flat and HUD projects managers, probation officers etc if they dared to apply the laws to non white feral youth.
About 1965, the consensus of opinion by the Judges and other authorities was that enforcing laws against non white criminals, especially black criminals was somehow racist and discriminatory.
That is how the situation got out of hand. Excusing black crime meant excusing all crimes.
When I was about 13, just getting interested in boys, I read a romantic novel. The heroine’s grandmother gave her some advice
“Don’t listen to what a man says, look at what he does.” I apply that to cities and countries run by liberals.
Don’t listen to their grandiose ideas, look at the results. And in every city and country run by liberals what to we see?
Rampant crime, dangerous neighborhoods, terrible non functioning physically dangerous schools turning out generation after generation of illiterates, pot holed streets, disfunctional government agencies run by the same affirmative action non whites who destroyed the neighborhoods, housing stock and schools, large scale long term homelessness, a disfunctional health system on the verge of collapse.
In short, every liberal city and country, from Cuba to Britian to America’s large cities has been destroyed by liberals and their petted and beloved minorities.
Posted by at 9:12 PM on July 14
Yes, Britain is in a mess due to generations of mass immigration, political correctness, welfare induced family breakdown and the moral degeneracy known as permissiveness- but most of it is still safe, still beautiful and still white!
And yes, we do have the gumption to turn it around - we have the British National Party which is working night and day to do just that, and with steadily growing success. I wish you Americans had the same gumption - where is your BNP? The USA is much further down the road to white dispossession and yet, as far as we can see on this side of the pond, you have not even the beginnings of a credible political vehicle for national survival.
As for the comments of B J Deller, it is very difficult to take the combination of insufferable smugness and contempt for his motherland (I presume from his tone that he is of British origin) from one who has abandoned her to her fate!
Posted by jrb at 9:35 PM on July 14
Morality is socially constructed.
No, morality is not a social construct.
Race is not a social construct either; society is a racial construct.
Minnette Marrin knows nothing. If hers is an example of the thinking of the average Briton, Britain is doomed.
Posted by at 9:53 PM on July 14
“He went, sometimes, to a notorious school where he learnt nothing but, being bright and charismatic, he became a leader of others in the street.”
This is an English newspaper? Put a comma after “nothing”, for God’s sake!
Posted by ben tillman at 10:12 PM on July 14
Another article worth reading; Celebrate the Criminal Class:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034445/Police-fury-bosses-tell-celebrate-gipsies.html
Posted by at 11:24 PM on July 14
My heart is broken for decent Brits. At this point they cannot vote their way out of these civilization-wrecking policies. My only solution would be to violently confront the sources of the immigration/amoral defenders in your personal lives. Whether they are a neighbor or family member makes no difference. Even though Britain has dubiously achieved the first Big Brother society with cameras and human spies everywhere, the bobbies can’t be everywhere at once. Oh, no! I bet this posting will be tracked by Scotland Yard, even though I’m a Yank!
Posted by Angryyoungman at 12:15 AM on July 15
It is the Labour party that has ruined Britain. It is responsible for the racial mess that is Britain today. Go to the BBC news website and google timeline: London teen killings and you will see who is responsible. I would add the very few British (Whites) victims were killed by Blacks.
Posted by at 1:19 AM on July 15
The entire Western world has deteriorated badly and it’s due, of course, to all this cultural enrichment and the diversity that’s touted as a strength.
Can anybody besides me see the parallels to what the Western world has become to the totalitarianism that was ridiculed so heavily just thirty or so years ago?
Remember Reagan’s joke to Gorbachev? About the fisherman catching more fish on the free side of the river and the fisherman on the communist side catching none, because on the free side they weren’t afraid of opening their mouths?
Who could get a laugh from that joke nowadays? Nobody could. Because the fish on both sides have become an uptight, tight-lipped bunch for their own well-being and safety. Overall, is there much difference between the West today and the totalitarians of yesteryear?
Free speech here in the Western world? Nonsense. Especially Europe where free speech has eroded so badly they have thought/speech police scurrying among the population ready to arrest anybody who says something against diversity or multiculturalsm.
In years past, the Marxists refused to allow certain words, thoughts, phrases, and the citizenry had to have an acceptable mind set or suffer the consequences. And bean counting was a favorite pastime.
Isn’t that the condition in the West right this minute? I mean, aren’t whites afraid to speak about certain subjects like the difference in intelligence between blacks and other races, and about every other topic that involves race?
And what about non-white crime, especially black crime? The subject won’t be discussed even on the conservative radio shows. It’s taboo, like every other black failing.
One of the most obvious lies now being told that mouths have to remain closed about, if they observe its ill effects, is this diversity. It’s slowly destroying the West in many ways, yet hardly no one will speak against it for fear he will lose his job or, at the least, become ostracized by the community. To the contrary, he is required to smile and declare his undying support for it, adding how grand he believes it is. Look at what happened to Dr. Watson for telling a truth the entire scientific community agrees with, except an oddball here and there.
With a totalitarian state, mouths were kept shut with the threat of bayonets. Today the same result is accomplished by utilizing economic tactics, with a bit of bluster and a swat team here and there to remind everybody how costly indiscretion could be for them. Instead of bayonets, the threat of being ruined financially or having one’s career destroyed have served the exact same purpose as threatening to murder them, although that warning is used often enough in various instances.
The fat cats now believe the best policy is one that placates the restless natives so they won’t riot and ignite a war which would cause a severe drop in taxes and profits, and if it means destroying their culture, traditions and ethnic identity, that’s o.k. with them. They don’t mind at all, and, if anybody has any doubts about whether they do, all he has to do is read of the injustices that take place on a daily basis, all favoring a non-white protected class in this failing empire.
This situation will continue so long as the fat cats are certain whites will not react in the same violent, unjust fashion as the non-white ingrates are always ready to do.
So if something would occur to make whites militant enough to take up arms, how upsetting that would be to our self-appointed elites for I’m pretty certain that would cause much hysteria and hand wringing among the whole ungodly lot of them.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 1:31 AM on July 15
So Britain has never seen poverty before? What about the 1920s or, further back, Dickensian London?
Britain doesn’t have a knife/gun problem; it has a black problem.
Posted by Iain at 3:11 AM on July 15
Amidst all the coverage of the growth in gangs, knife crime and social breakdown no mention is made of the ethnicity of the offenders.
Almost entirely black or muslim asian.
If the British government and its left wing media cannot face the reality they will never find a solution.
Mass immigration has destroyed our country.
Fortunately, so far, they are mostly killing each other. Its the “self cleaning oven” scenario again.
Long may it continue.
Posted by Geoff Miller at 3:45 AM on July 15
He came to the UK “for the NHS”; note, not to work for the free British National Health Service, since his mother worked in a bar, so presumably to use the NHS. Cheek! (I’m a British tax payer.)
Posted by Mark Parker at 9:23 AM on July 15
Of course HideouslyWhite is completely correct: these problems would not exist if there were not uncontrolled, open-door immigration to England.
That said, it is a token of how bad things are in England that Minette Marrin is far and away one of the better and more honest journalists. An article such as the one above (which manifestly goes nowhere near far enough, and fails to draw some blindingly obvious conclusions) would be considered disgustingly reactionary, prejudiced and beyond the pale of the morally acceptable in so-called liberal circles.
Posted by Johnny English at 10:07 AM on July 15
Enoch Powell identified the problem back in 1948: the divisibility of the Monarchy. Solution: Eliminate the distinction between Britain and the Commonwealth. Send all Pakis and other non-Brits back.
Posted by Carl at 12:00 PM on July 15
“No, morality is not a social construct. Race is not a social construct either; society is a racial construct. Minnette Marrin knows nothing. If hers is an example of the thinking of the average Briton, Britain is doomed.”
For someone who thought Ms Marrin must have things backward, I read your opinion and now I can only think to myself maybe Ms Marrin is right after all. Who knew? Not me…
Posted by Just one more opinion. . . at 1:37 PM on July 15
Interesting in-depth analysis. Then again, maybe blacks just like sticking it to whitey, no matter how much money they have.
Posted by at 1:40 PM on July 15
“Neither an appeal to morality nor the threat of a community sentence or the brutalities of jail—90% of prisoners are mentally ill—will solve it for him. Nor will any of that solve the problems he presents to the rest of us. It seems to me heartless to suggest that it might.’
Typical mush-head journalist. Spend a lot of precious time outlining a problem, then throw up your hands while stating that absolutely nothing can be done. End story with a figurative “Sigh. Oh well.”
So let’s see: moral appeals won’t work, community sentences won’t work, jail won’t work (overlooked is the fact that jail would keep him away from innocent people, who never matter to these kook journalists). The only option left is to put him down like a rabid animal, I suppose. Heartless, indeed. /s
What exactly is the point of writing articles like this? To present themselves as “caring, sensitive people”? In reality they’re just self-absorbed twits who doesn’t give enough of a damn to expend any mental energy searching for solutions. File story, head to martini bar…bada bing.
Posted by at 3:15 PM on July 15
Britain and the United States are the home of the “New World Order.” This must be obvious by well read people by now. Bush’s father spoke of it, as did Gordon Brown,recently,who,did not use the term “New World Order” but expressed the identical sentiments.
Posted by Bobby at 5:05 PM on July 15
jrp: We do have other parties besides the Republicans and the Democrats. The Constitution Party, for instance. It is more difficult for a third party to succeed in the American system than it is in the British one. Generally, a third party candidate ends up splitting the vote of one party. People think that a third party vote is a wasted vote. As long as that attitude prevails, we are stuck with the “Republicrats”.
Posted by middle-aged magnolia at 9:12 PM on July 15
“…there is a lot of evidence that neglected babies fail to develop, cognitively or emotionally…”
This may explain partly the high incidence of psychopathic personality in Blacks:
http://www.amren.com/ar/2002/07/
Posted by FM at 11:06 PM on July 16
Like the man said:
‘What did the police do before immigration?’
Posted by Robert Sharpe at 12:58 PM on July 27