CULTsha-sha

Another Long Rant... Sorry.

The Wright Stuff on channel Five really pissed me off the other day. Wright posed a question, should we get tougher on knife crime? I think the exact, proposed hypothetical question was; should people caught carrying knives be jailed for 5 years? It was just a question designed to spark debate, nothing wrong with that.

Until one woman called up to disagree with this new made up law. Wright wanted the debate to be about whether it was fair to jail someone for carrying something like a pen knife who had no intention of using it to stab someone.

This woman however thought this wasn’t worth discussing and tried, in the short time allocated to her, to explain how society has lost its way with bad media influences and stuff. I know what you’re thinking but it was more than just a censorship rant, she said she thought the entire human race needed to be reprogrammed.

I wouldn’t have put like that, in fact the remark made Wright laugh and say. “I don’t believe that’s necessary, I think we just need to lock up a few bad guys”. He then cut her off, what a fucking prick. He could have at least tried to understand where she was coming from, I mean it is a debate show.

The thing is I agree with that woman, society has lost its way but it isn’t down to one contributing factor like gangster rap – it’s almost everything.

50 or 40 years ago we had stronger communities; people knew each other, they had principals and respect. What’s changed? Technology has for a start, and for those of us in the rich countries it’s made our lives so much more comfortable. We also haven’t had a World War in awhile which means we’ve enjoyed certain freedoms like not being bombed or dragged overseas to get shot at in a trench.

Basically Britain has become a country of whinging spoilt babies. Some people say all our problems with escalating crime is because of multiculturalism, perhaps - but I think it plays only one part. Yeah different cultures move here and integrate with our own, yes they may bring their prejudices with them and squabble with each other, with us and us with them. But come on, that’s just intolerance, ignorance and stupidity - a basic human fear of things that are different, if we tried harder at communicating with each other then maybe we could forge new communities.

But I guess that’s just a dream, most ethnic minorities live in the poorest parts of society. This is why it’s considered that only people with coloured faces are committing crime. Poor people commit crime that’s it. That’s the way it has always been.

That’s not all though, these crimes, these tragic murders on our streets, they were partly all my fault, I let these teenagers down, and so did you, and you and you, you you and you. The blood is on all our hands because no one is acting, the country is filled with morally decent people alright but people who do nothing. In fact that is pretty much the literal truth.

It’s not just one culture not communicating with another it’s happening on an individual level.

I could try and talk to these kids, set up community organisations and apply some education for these idiots who think carrying knives is a necessity. But I don’t because I can’t be bothered; right? It’s not my problem; right? Even if I did go and talk to these kids they wont listen to me because I won’t be able to relate to them, I’ll just be some wanker preaching bollocks. The people who do grow up in these areas and manage to get away and make something of their lives could go back and talk to them. But many don’t, why the hell should they, what do they owe to the dilapidated urban wasteland that brings forth such terrible memories? Nothing. But wouldn’t it be amazing if we all tried to get through to these misguided fools sooner rather than wait for them to kill someone and then punish them?

So why are these kids committing crimes in the first place? Well as I stated they’re poor, they are surrounded by advertisements that flaunt beautiful things they can’t afford and they are victims of an apathetic, violent, juvenile media that probably fuels their angst to boiling point.  

Here’s my run down:

1. Heat magazine, Nuts, Zoo, More, FHM all of this is trash, it’s literature for complete idiots, people who are totally dependant on useless trivial celebrity gossip and material crap.
2. Game shows like Golden Balls, Deal or No Deal, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link all seem to celebrate cruelty rather than general knowledge.
3. Computer games, I’m a total hypocrite as I own a Playstation 3 and play loads of games but I’m fucking 25 I should be an adult. IT’S NOT COOL TO SIT AROUND AND PLAY GAMES ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY! Go out into the world and make a difference.
4. X-Factor, Fame Academy, Grease is the Word, Andrew Lloyd fucking Webber, Britain’s Got Talent, phone in for your favourite talentless poser. You could live the dream! You could be a celebrity too!
5. Thatcherism and New Labour have told us that embracing the free market and privatisation was necessary in maintaining a good economy. Though it now seems that it just prolonged the inevitable. In fact the economy was in even worse shape at the end of Thatcher’s reign in the 90’s than when she began her time in office at the beginning of the 80’s. Blair gave us the age of instant credit, and now we are in even more of a mess. We have become a nation that is hounded endlessly by corporations peddling their crap and we dig ourselves into more and more debt by buying it all. Only a few generations ago people bought what they needed, now we are convinced that we can’t live without the most useless garbage and we believe it, all so we can fill our homes with materialistic shit.
6. Facebook, Myspace, hell Tumblr even (again I am a total hypocrite) all promote self promotion, a chance to have your own space on the internet. They are social networks sure. But something about the way people have become obsessed with plugging themselves and trying to be “oh so” unique is a little sickening and quite frankly wrong.
7. Globalisation, ok your average street hood isn’t going to be aware of this but many adults are and do nothing. But then again what are we going to do? Pay more for clothes and food? Fuck that I’m going to Primark, they have a sale on! Slavery hasn’t been abolished, it’s just moved out of sight. Out of sight out of mind. 

We have let this happen, all of us. This is the shit we call a society and there is no way back. Kids are being brought up by kids, they model themselves and rebel against what they see and hear. When the law is changed, and it will be, to come down harder on knife crime it could very well discourage further crimes in the near future.

However this is only a temporary solution, if we continue down this road the next generation will become even more violent and rebellious and the law will become tougher, the generation after will act out and again the law will challenge them.

The whole process will repeat until we are all living under marshal law.

I wouldn’t say that the human race needs to be reprogrammed. I would say that many of the adults in this country have some serious growing to do. And I’m no exception.