Riots on the streets of London

ThomasT

If you read my post(s) it should be clear enough. It's my understanding that the riots are happening in mostly (exclusively?) poorer neighborhoods (which was the case wrt the US riots that I experienced) where the drug culture and the 'gangsta' mentality and the glorification of violence tend to be predominant attitudes amoung the young people who populate those neighborhoods.

What they did this time seemed to be inadequate to prevent or quell the destruction. I would think that after the first set of rioting that enough manpower would be brought in to prevent further rioting. Maybe they should have used the army?

I'm just wondering how a gang of youths can terrorize a community without there being a sufficient police presence there to stop them within minutes.

Kracatoan

For me, the blame lies in the breakdown of the British Education system under labour this last decade. Teachers have lost the right to discipline unruly behaviour - thus eradicating the respect for authority - and non-academic children have been forced to follow an academic style education which is inappropriate to their strengths and weaknesses.

Added to that there are the frankly terrifying levels of illiteracy in Britain (almost one in five primary school leavers) the inability to read or write severs countless links to present society and cuts one off from the distilled thoughts and morals of the human race which can be found in reading books.

The inability to read and write makes one very unemployable and cannot be ignored as a cause of Britain's social sickness.

arildno

I agree that the laissez-faire mentality that has infected not just UK schools, but all across the western world is extremely destructive.

We also know precisely WHICH political groupings that have railed against the eevil authority of teachers, how the "individual" pupil should be the focus (rather than that all of them should pay attention to..the teacher), how bullies are actively encouraged to harden their ways by commiseration, and making the TEACHER responsible for the pupil's behaviour (for not making his class "interesting" enough) and so on.

and yes, it is solely the leftists who bear the blame for the utterly sich, knowledge-hostile environment the schools have turned into.

arildno

Nonsense.

Being "deprived" of the most expensive television set is not a breach of fundamental human rights.
Being "socially excluded" from, say, the executive board of a big chemical company is not a breach of fundamental human rights.
Having "unequal opportunity" at becoming a professor of maths because you can't even add or subtract properly is not a breach of fundamental human rights.

billiards

Rubbish. You're out of touch with reality. A blind swipe at "leftists".

Kracatoan

A blind swipe perhaps, but maybe not entirely untrue, as the recent decline in teacher authority in Britain certainly has a correlation with the Labour Party being in power, a problem the current government wish to correct.

That said, the blame does not lie entirely with Labour, instead I would say it is more of a problem of society as a whole opposing strict school discipline as cruel or somesuch nonsense. When the rights of the student are placed above the rights of the teacher, it is clear something is wrong.

arildno

Actually, I DO know quite a lot of the perversions of modern pedagogics, that has as its main axiom reality denial.

mheslep

No, they are not, the riots were largely in upscale areas at least in London, hence my query....[/QUOTE]

Evo

This thread is beyond hope.