kids these days...

[MissyDiabolical]

Well to start off I don't want to sound hypocritical; I'm 22 years old so not much older than the age group i'm talking about, but lifestyle-wise a whole world away...

I wanted to talk about the attitudes of teenagers/young adults, especially in the wake of the London riots which happened on my front doorstep. A lot of middle class middle age angry men and women were interviewed on the news saying what a disgrace it was, how shameful, where are the parents of these hooligans? it's all just mindless violence, how dare they?!
It angered me because yes, it is all mindless violence and no I in no way condone it, but I think they're totally missing the point. The kids don't feel ashamed because they don't feel anything- gonna get arrested? oh well sh*t happens. Gonna get beaten up? Yeah the whole world hates me anyway. And hye I can go get me a telly cos I haven't got any money to buy one.
If you've got nothing to lose you can do anything you want and it doesn't matter. These kids went to a school where they weren't heard by their teachers and formed tight bonds with their classmates which become gangs and the only thing they have to look out for is each other. There aren't any jobs unless you have a handful of degrees and university fees are so expensive they can't afford to go. They live on the dole (government granted money for the unemployed) which is a massive pain the arse- people think living on the dole is for dossers who want to be lazy. I have a few friends on dole money and let me tell you it is not easy to survive on and you basically sign your soul to the government, it's a massive drain on your psyche and once your on it it is very hard to claw your way back out.
I want to reiterate (spelling?) I in NO WAY CONDONE THE RIOTS. I live in Enfield North London and this sh*t was scary, that massive warehouse fire was down my road. I'm just probing into why they happened.
Then on the flipside it's totally different; spoilt kids who make their parents do EVERYTHING for them. I saw a lot of this going on when I went to university. I come from a council estate (social housing/projects etc) raised by just my mum on her own and from 11 I was cleaning up the house, cooking myself dinners when mum worked late and generally just helping out, not abandoned to myself far from it, just learning to be independant. At university most of the students came from more affluent backgrounds and whoah, what a culture shock. I saw one girl scream at her mother for packing her clothes wrong. Another guy let his parents carry all his stuff to his dorm room while he played his nintendo, and they all lived on chips from the canteen because none of them knew how to cook (one screwed up a pot noodle- how do you do that?!)
These kids aren't out on the streets rioting, but I think they are just as big a problem. They expect to get rich and famous and waited on for nothing, and in my eye that's just as dangerous an attitude as 'i've got nothing to live for'; both are unproductive.

phew, rant over. I'm not pigeonholing everyone here or trying to start a class war; I'm working class but went to university and have a steady job and my middle class friend works really hard for next to nothing and is now moving into social housing, there's always excpetions. But this has been on the news a lot and I needed to vent! What about you, is it like this where you live? Do you disagree, please do say so. i'm all ears

[Gemz]

Hi Jessica.

I agree with you on some points especially the points you made about 'spoilt kids' and the whole University crowd - been there, seen it, loathed it HAHA!

I too come from a 'working class background' but luckily enough at the time it was 'reasonable' in terms of tuition fees etc. A friend of mine had parents who gave her £500 a month to live on and she would spend money like water - I lived on the little I had left from a living loan which of course you have to add on top of your T- Fee... although I was always mindful that ultimately I had a better sense of the value of money and that would see me good for the future.

As for the riots that happened recently - I do think a lot of it was mindless opportunist crime and like you, do not condone it. I do feel these individuals need some guidance which it seems might have been what they were missing in the first place. I think the fact the government were asking parents - "Keep your children at home" kinda says it all really (that parents don't know what their kids are up to or possibly care?) I am assuming of course but I think more often than not, this is what it boils down to. When interviewed, the rioters didn't seem that sure of what they were rioting for, with a lot of them mumbling something about taxes and jobs (as you pointed out) but not really looking at the bigger picture or having the knowledge to back it up. I don't feel that they really knew exactly why they were rioting in the first place, which of course points to a lack of education in my opinion. Yes there are a lack of jobs, taxes are rising etc etc, however we are not the only country and people going through this and it falls down to the individual on how their life is going to turn out on the most part and you and I are proof of that.

xX

[certain]

Rant needed there MissyDiabolical. Sometimes it's just good to get everything out.

Here in the US we're lacking jobs too and people decided to go back to college to get them better, higher pay jobs...well it ended up being a total festivity of government loans and now the college loan debts are higher than credit card debt, which is monstrous. I'm apart of that group. I'm going to college and have a loan. The longer you're in school the larger the amount to be paid back. It's heartbreaking, but then again I got the loan and will have to pay for it.

I'm from the middle class, which is very vague considering people have different opinions on where middle class is. My family doesn't make 23,000 dollars a year. That's very under class. But I shrug at it.

I hope that the riots stop soon and you feel safe again.

[Kweenie]

Times are changed for the worst,unfortunately.Parents have authority over their kids anymore,the King Child system isn't good for kids, they let them childish, selfish and dependant always .I'm 23 I have difficulties to understand this mentality.
I'm not so old .

[Lerf1950]

As a 61 year old I'm finding this conversation mildly hysterical. It's almost as good as the local editorials about 8th graders being issued i-pads in our local schools....

[MissyDiabolical]

I don't feel i'm being hysterical, though when a riot happens on your doorstep it can't help but rile you up a bit. I'm just sharing my rant about modern attitudes, particularly as this is posted in the 'rants' section. I never claimed that what I said was a fact, just an opinion. I often find that local'editorials' (i'm guessing newspapers/websites?) present opinion as fact, i'm not trying to do that here.
I invite you to share your opinion about modern attitudes of the young generation today? It varies greatly from area to area and across different classes and cultures and that is what this thread was started to discuss, in light of the riots where I live.

[Lerf1950]

About like the attitude of young people in 1968, 1978, and 1988. The world has been going to heck since someone figured out how to bang the rocks together and their parents complained that they were obsessing to much on these "spear point" things instead of using a good old pointy stick like they did when they were young.

And by hysterical I meant hysterically funny.

[MissyDiabolical]

yes sadly it does seem to just go in circles, we never learn *sigh*

Totally misunderstood use of 'hysterical'

[Lerf1950]

I should have realized that I wasn't being clear about the "hysterical" thing. Must have been pre-caffiene.

I can remember so much of this from my college days. Particularly one campus meeting where people were worried that my University wasn't being perceived as dedicated to the cause of peace because we weren't having huge rallies that turned into riots. And the ones who said this were so solemn about the whole thing, and couldn't seem to understand that some of us felt this was a good thing. Then Watts went up in flames-- that was scarey.

I do wish I could join the Wall Street protest locally today, but my husband and I are taking off for a conference in Louisiana in a few minutes. In fact I should be helping pack the car right now.

See you when I get back.

[MissyDiabolical]

In my old home town I lived near an 'anarchists compound' community housing project and had some good friends from there, and knew a fair few squatters too who chose to live in their own societies to distance themselves from modern culture. A lot of them protested for good and tried to make a change by doing charity work and so on, but it really ticked me off that a lot of people I met just seemed to want to protest for no real reason at all; they didn't really care or know about the cause or would make big claims like 'we need to free Palestine!', then would do absolutely nothing about it other than put a poster up on their wall and whine in between smoking a doobie and sleeping all day, claiming benefits. More of the 'I don't care, what do I have to loose/ society owes me' attitude.
I love it when I see real true protests going on, where the people are trying to make a point, are educated about their cause. The London riots started because a man was shot dead by the police, particularly poignant here because not many police officers actually carry guns so it's not a common occurrence. But two days later ask anyone why they are smashing and burning half of London and they had no clue.