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August 03, 2005

Stockings and Broken Windows - revisited

My first post with this title is here where I explored the link between the Boomer's rejection of social convention to todays coarser society and much much more control of behavior via law and code

Ironic, isn't it, as people like [Michael] Moore have sneered at societal conventions that used values and expectations to guide individuals on the proper way of treating each other have gained the upper hand in society, more than ever have we had to enact laws to govern behavior. From university speech codes to work place dress codes to statutes that define "hostile work environment" to include behavior that at one time would only be considered obnoxious, we've moved from a society that controlled the coarser elements by voluntary convention to reams of laws and codes defining the most minute of behavior.

This constitutes a freer society than the one of the 40/50's the boomers rejected?

I bring this up because you coulda bowled me over with feather as I read an article that will be appearing in the UK Daily Mail tomorrow written by Joan Collins (yes, that Joan Collins) which is featured right now on The Drudge Report
I believe that when a country loses so much respect for itself that it can no longer even be identified by its historically correct name, insecurity and lack of respect filter down to its inhabitants.

Recently, I have concluded that London is no longer the 'seat of civilised society' that the world once considered it to be, and is certainly not the safe city I grew up in. ...

We've become the 'Whatcha lookin' at?' culture. Why do young people consider it cool to be arrogant, swaggering and rude? Why do so many people in England seem so cynical and self-centred?

I witnessed young, drunken yobs roaming the streets kicking cars, screaming insults, pushing people and even pushchairs out of their way, attacking each other viciously and then turning on the police when they tried to maintain order.

THE WHOLE scene evoked the image of hordes of inebriated Vikings sacking devastated towns. Even during the day, feral mobs roamed the cities with absolute disregard for anyone else's property or well-being. Traditional virtues of male chivalry and female propriety were very far from view.

After all, a lack of manners and politeness in a society can only be a reflection of what the society thinks of itself.

And let's add that a prime reflection on how some English take it even further and preach hatred of their own country in foreign press -- I present you with the remarks of MP George Galloway [h/t Jeff Goldstein] to the Arab news media:
It's not the Muslims who are sick. It's Bush and Blair and Berlusconi who are sick. It's not the Muslims who need to be cured. It's the imperialist countries that need to be cured.
....
Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it.
....
America is losing the war in Iraq, and even the Americans now admit it. Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad know it. The former puppet minister (Iyad) Allawi admitted it three times in the last month. America is losing the war in Iraq. And this will not change. The resistance is getting stronger every day, and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker everyday. Therefore, it can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.
....
It's not the Muslims who are the terrorists. The biggest terrorists are Bush, and Blair, and Berlusconi, and Aznar, but it is definitely not a clash of civilizations. George Bush doesn't have any civilization, he doesn't represent any civilization. We believe in the Prophets, peace be upon them. He believes in the profits, and how to get a piece of them. That's his god. That's his god. George Bush worships money. That's his god - Mammon.
If Galloway is not talking sedition or treason, then those words have lost all meaning.

Posted by Darleen at August 3, 2005 06:28 PM

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