RightWingDeathBogan

Which One Is Generation Whine?

When Magilla smacked out one of the boys in day care, I made her tell the lad's mother what she had done.

The mum is tall, about 5'10, and my girl was about 4 and 1/2 at the time.

The three of us stood there until Magilla had ceased squirming and fessed up to the deed. Afterwards I drove her home in silence, because I do not condone that behaviour. She had dinner, bath and bed as usual, but without dessert, book or snuggle.

Going by what's happening today, I seem to be a dying breed.

So I'm checking my email, and the usual news headlines pop up. One of which has a man declaring that the police are to blame for his son's party getting out of hand.

Money quote from the article linked?

The out of control party had been advertised on social networking website MySpace by 18-year-old Mark Marangoni and there was a $5 entry fee.

Mark's father, Imerio Marangoni, 73, faced media with bank notes visible in his pocket and said people aged between 14 and 18 had turned up.

"The people spend money, come here, pay money to enjoy," he said.

He said Mark was "upset" and had left the house on foot , then blamed police for provoking party-goers.

"They come in, tell people to piss off but they were at the party to enjoy. It's (a) disaster."

"Two hundred people, all young, you can't control them when they drink."

But he said Mark, who normally lives with his mother, would not host another party at his house.
"No. No more parties. No, no."

A couple of points here to note. First of all, the kid's entrepreneurial skills are to be admired, but there's probably some law against charging kids to come to a party in suburbia. I'm sure the neighbours were pissed about it all.

Next, what the hell are a bunch of 14-18yos doing drinking alcohol anyway? I'm aware it's legal to drink at 18; I drank when I was that age, too. That's not the point. The point is the father is aware of underage drinkers and he would surely be aware it's against the law.

I wonder what the parents of those partygoers think?

The next news headline to catch my eye was this one about the recent unrest in Rosewood.

Mr Thiu blamed ongoing crime in the area on the Department of Housing for concentrating a group of disadvantaged residents in a small area.

Excuse me, Mr Thiu? Did the Department hand out the knives? Did the Department provide the wherewithal to cause injury to each other?

Perhaps if you encouraged the youngsters to get off their arses and get jobs and have a bit of direction in life they might be less inclined to run about in gangs assaulting one another.

Perhaps if you encouraged those under your expert direction to earn something and make something of themselves they'd have a bit more respect for themselves and those around.

Sure, these are only two examples, but they are a result of the lack of respect for authority that runs riot these days.

We have an old man refusing to accept his son's culpability in a party getting out of hand even as he helped facilitate it, and an elder again refusing to acknowledge that the young men under his own apparent authority as a (media-described) elder obviously aren't listening to his wisdom*.

There is fault on all sides here.

The young people, for getting up to no good.

The older people, for enabling the behaviour.

The tolerance and diversity so beloved by our civilisation that condones these situations.

When children are brought up knowing all of their rights and none of their responsibilities, when parents or those in loco parentis collude in their children's wrongdoing, I'm not surprised that stuff like this happens.

I'm only surprised that there's not more of it.

Victimology 101.

I cannot tell a lie - it was him!


*This is, of course, supposing that the wisdom he imparts actually touches on such esoteric concepts as rule of Law, and not getting into knife fights and beating the crap out of each other. Haven't they heard of dialogue?

posted by Nilk @ 8:59 PM