Blame The Parents

Opening the paper a couple of weeks ago, I looked at the tale of the awful news from Edlington, South Yorkshire. The torture of two little boys, by two little boys was a harrowing read and is a story I have subsequently gone out of my way to avoid. Just what on earth can possess two children of 11 to even contemplate such sadistic thoughts, let alone get their hands on weapons and then carry out a shocking mutilation? If I was anything to go by - they should be stopping their bicycles at lampposts and waiting for an imaginary passenger to climb on board before speeding off humming engine noises.

Thankfully, such incidents are indeed rare and I’m by no means lamenting the end of an age of childhood innocence. Unfortunately though, robbery, violence and disorder in adults is not rare and it got me thinking why it’s ended up this way.

Sure society has always had its problems but it never used to be this bad, did it? Turn back half a century or so to the post-war 50’s and such serious crimes and anti-social behaviour were much rarer. That's not to say they didn’t happen. There were some horrific crimes in the decade prior to the civil rights movement and society was a grotesque racism-riddled world away from the multiculturalism we enjoy today.

So whilst we can thank the 1960’s adolescents for a freedom and liberalism and an acceptance of individuals as equals. To that generation we can perhaps attribute the blame for many of society’s problems that we now contend with. The undoubted slackening of peoples tolerances to unsociable behaviour coupled with a desire to be experimental. This brought drugs, alcohol, sex and crime in to the mainstream. What was unacceptable a decade previously could now be tolerated in a summer of love drug-in. A summer which was always only one bad trip away from turning to disaster as drugs manifested in and then bent people’s minds.

It was a decade for good and bad that literally did change our world for ever as much as any other. No longer would rock bands line up in suits like an early Beatles. No longer would rock stars have to lie about taking drugs when they could instead make them cool. No longer would songs be banished from radio for their drug references (which admittedly would be a travesty for those such as Lucy in the Sky with Diamond or the Byrds – 8 mile High). Nor indeed would it be considered anything but sociable to sit around drinking in fields all day listening to such music.

The youth wanted freedom and they made sure they got it. Suddenly with this seismic shift in the consciousnesses of society, the 60’s turned in to the 70’s and the new generation heralded in an era of punk that made violence cool. Violence cast an ever-reaching shadow over society, plaguing the simplest of pleasures from late night walks to going to football matches. Long gone were the days of leaving doors unlocked overnight or a society where each knew their neighbour, or where murders generally were headline news.

So for my 30-something generation - we can absolutely blame the parents. Mind you they did make cracking music which would have probably been un-experimental repetitive dirge, were it not for those blessed mind-bending drugs!