Imagine you are aboard an old sailing man o'war in rough seas. A cannon breaks loose from its ropes. It rolls across the deck as the ship rolls, smashing everything in its path. The ship rolls to the other side. The cannon careers back to the other side, breaking more stuff, injuring people. The ship rolls again...
The ship is HMS UK. The cannon is called Anger. Anger born of alienation, of being poor in a society where you are what you own, of having no chance of a job, of living in s sink estate where everything is dirty, broken and ugly, where if you walk the streets, you are very likely to be stopped and searched by police. When someone in your community is shot by police, and the family of the dead man wait for hours, peacefully, outside the police station and are not given an explanation, the last tethering rope breaks.
Stored resentment against an alien society boils over, and crowd behaviour takes over. Three nights of smashing, looting, arson and murder follow, until it is suppressed by massive police deployments.
The the loose cannon of anger rolls the other way. Magistrates hand out prison sentences that will cost the taxpayer £30,000 to a boy that stole £3 worth of drink. A kid gets a lifetime criminal record for stealing chewing gum worth less than £1. A mother who stayed away from the rioting get 3 months prison for receiving a pair of stolen shorts. The cannon of anger is rolling to starboard.
People who view these savage sentences and remember that bankers who did far more damage to the economy than the rioters have got away scot-free, with bonuses even. The cannon of anger rolls to port again, this time entraining people who were never angry before.
More anger is not the answer. The answer is justice, equitableness, calmness, and rational provision of parenting skill training, youth clubs, community workers, good jobs, all provided by taxation of rich individuals and corporations who avoid taxation.
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Quadragesimo Anno
You get the prize for gnomic utterances.
Quadragesimo anno - Pius XI -1931 (Fortieth Year) sub-titled “Reconstruction of the Social Order”. Charges that capitalism's free competition has destroying society, with the state having become a "slave" serving its greed. Also, while the lot of workers has improved in the Western World, it has deteriorated elsewhere. Warns against a communist solution, however, because communism condones violence and abolishes private property. Labour and capital need each other. A just wage is necessary so workers can acquire private property, too. The state has the responsibility to reform the social order, since economic affairs can't be left to free enterprise alone. Public intervention in labor-management disputes approved; international economic cooperation urged. The title is a reference to the fortieth year after the 1891 Rerum Novarum – Leo XIII (The Condition of Labor) which called for promotion of human dignity through just distribution of wealth. Claiming that inequality creates a decline of morality. Workers have basic human rights that adhere to Natural Law, which says all humans are equal. Rights include the right to work, to own private property, to receive a just wage, and to organize into workers' associations.
Thanks for that. Very interesting, and I fully agree. Is the present Pope signing up to this? And have you got a name?
"Is the present Pope signing up to this?" Sort of - "The idolatry of goods, on the contrary, not only separates us from others but empties the human person and leaves him (or her) unhappy," Benedict XVI. I still think it all went down hill after John XXIII!
Well, Mr Anonymous, good luck in pressing your Church to take up the spiritual warfare against Mammon.
Could our schools revisit the three 'R's ?
The fundamentals of modern humanity is in the basic skills of Reason, Responsibility and Reliability.
With that foundation the need to be able to read, write and matriculate is recognised by the individual as a natural requirement of modern existence not simply a way of getting a job!
The other aspects of study become interesting and fulfilling not just a way of adding qualifications to your portfolio that you may never refer to in your future life.
I have had the occasion to employ graduates that (I'm sure) could write a thesis on the subject they were taken on to do, but didn't have a clue about practical nature of the problems involved and were actually an impediment to the development of the project, we had to let them go!
I now really appreciate a person that has been through an apprenticeship or equal and brings the skills and understanding into the team, where he/she hits the ground running.
You may not print this!
Hi Anonymous
Yep, anything that would increase childrens' understanding of how reality works would be good.
I would like to take them camping, then get them to reflect on what it is they have to do - get water, food, fuel, shelter, and make sure their crap doesn't get into the stream or onto their shoes. And go forward from there.
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