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It has been the most serious 'silly season' in years. The looters' one positive notch was to defibrillate the left and right into genuine reflection about the health of British society - how sick it is, what caused it, and how to heal it.
Everyone is, understandably, looking for the elusive causal link. The left see structural inequalities and the right suspect diminished personal responsibility. I would like to propose something far simpler: the UK has a problem raising its young men.
The mode demographic for gang members is either 15 or 19 year old males, depending on the source. The mode demographic for those on ASBOs is 14-17 year old males. The mode demographic group for drugs users is 16-19 year old males. The highest rate of serious crime is committed by 17 year old males. The average age of the looters (at least those that have been before a magistrate) is 22, overwhelmingly male. Two third of those who have committed Islamist related offenses in Britain over the last decade are under thirty, and almost all male. 17-24 year olds males have more drink driving accidents per miles driven than any other group.
Some of this could perhaps be partly explained by higher unemployment levels and other generation Y disadvantages. Perhaps. But I doubt young men feel structural inequalities any more acutely than young women; or that they would necessarily be more vulnerable to infection from dropping moral standards.
So I have another thesis, to which I'll return, empirically, very soon. Which is that the last 20 years has seen a narrowing of opportunities for restless young men to expend their testosterone: fewer wars to fight (at least in terms of conscription); diminished physical and manual labour; and fewer opportunities for sport and physical combat in cramped suburban enclaves.
Of course this is not the whole picture - and I'm not proposing we start more wars. But I am surprised more is not made of it, as this all strikes me as fairly obvious. For all the hand-wringing about fixing our broken society, we should also re-think how we handle young men, and provide better, and more meaningful physical outlets for them. That really would require some radical thinking.
Follow Jamie Bartlett on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JamieJBartlett
The theory of evolution propaganda is giving birth to delinquents, rioters, ASBO's, drug users, looters and drunks. We can all go and thank Darwin for a theory that is crippling the minds of today's youth and giving them no reason to obey authority of any kind.
In Egypt the riots have subsided, Mubarak has gone and now the rioters look around and find they still have no cheap food, or jobs, and the same bleak future. Libya will find the same thing. Saudi Arabia has spent billions on giving its young men university education, cheap food, yet is still having to buy off unrest with vast amounts of cash benefits to placate restless unemployed youth. Desert countries have no infrastructure to support industry, so that cash must come from oil revenues, imagine what will happen when it runs out.
http://www.yourmedievalfuture.com/
The big thing I noticed was just how young most of them were. 13 or 14, mostly.
Thus East Europeans are here in large numbers looking fit and tanned. I have seen East Europeans when they first arrived looking just like local lads. It is the will to work that is the difference.
The fewer physical opportunities for sport is an interesting. On the one hand, I do recognise that we need to provide greater facilities. But go to your local park at the weekend and see how it is being used. In my area there are organised games of football and large empty areas. A lot of young lads hang around indoors.
The remedy I think lies in creating a workfare system which gradually gets people into work. This means government-funded local schemes with part-time jobs leading to full-time jobs. In the long-run, such schemes would cost less than the harms effected by having a couple of million unemployables living on benefit, prey to crime, drugs and alcohol, repressing anger and exploding into fits of rage when the meaninglessness of their lives is half-glimpsed.
However am very interested in your statement of proving your point empirically, hope to see the post soon.