Shame, blame, and the man with no name...

Now, it may or may not have escaped my attention (or even yours, my observant readers) but apparently the UK has been ripped by bouts of civil unrest... or as we used to call it, a bunch of pillocks smashing stuff... The Beard is not about to go into the rights and wrongs of the matter (by which you, dear reader, will immediately understand that he most certainly is about to go into just that...) except to say that an awful lot is being said about the causes of all this, and obviously the apparent solutions...and of course, the role of the police force...

Regardless of what several people have claimed as the causes, a regardless of the rights and wrongs of the police shooting in Tottenham of a suspected drug dealer, it remains to be said that the fmily of said victim behaved in a fairly decent way, protesting peacefully, and wanting to know quite reasonably exactly what had happened to their son... as anyone would... and then, just as grief gets hijacked in celebrity circles, so did theirs, by a far more dangerous group of people... now, whether this was the gangs thinking, hey, lets rob some stuff, or whether it was set up by the police to sabotage any possible cuts to their budgets, the end result was a few greedy people taking advantage and a few more just following the lead for whatever reason... lets be honest, we all know plenty of people who just go along with stuff... even whole nations have done it in the past... whether its for fear of bullying, or for lack of resistance to peer pressure, or down to a general apathetic opposition to actually thinking about what to do personally, an awful lot of people do just go with the crowd, much to the delight of the film, music and fashion industries....

But going along with the crowd is a choice, no matter how you come to it... and choice is where good and evil collide... as the Beard has stated before, societally good is choosing to go along with the mores and laws of the society we live in... evil is choosing not to... but choice it is indeed, and all those involved in last weeks thuggery made that choice to do it.. they are ultimately responsible for their actions, regardless of background and motive...

Evil, of course, divides itself into two groups... the immoral and the amoral... and it's the latter group that worries me most... you see, immorality I can cope with... it is quite simply a morality of its own, just one that goes against the societal norm... often immorality simply turns morality on its head... but immoral people do not necessarily see themselves as immoral... if the Beard may use the idiom of modernity, they actually see themselves as differently moral... for example, it was not long ago that consenting adult homosexuals were seen as immoral...they themselves had their own rules, and obeyed such laws of the land as they saw to be "good," while deliberately disobeying others.. and attempting to change those laws for their own benefit... very immoral... but notice... they accepted that morality existed, and they accepted that their morality was different to that of society... The Nazis in 1930s Germany saw themselves as moral... they never thought of themselves as the baddies... in fact, they saw themselves as doing good... luckily for a lot of peope, we didn't... Darth Vader, with his rigid Sith code was very moral... and probably saw the rebel alliance as immoral... and verse vica...

But I run the risk of digressing... as I say, one of the problems with certain alleged cultures today is a pervading amorality... that is, that these people do not believe in the importance of morality at all... as opposed to the immoral, who have their own morals which they wish to enforce on the moral, the amoral person has no rules... they just want to get rid of all of them... it's very almost the flip side to anarchy (the Beard's ideal governance system apart from Rule-of-Beard, as you may or may not recall me telling or not telling you...)in that where anarchy has no leaders, amorality has no rules, save those which the amorl can impose for a short time to get their way... as an example, just to over gild the cherry and mix metaphors further... an immoral would be ruler will have his set of rules... he may be persuaded to change these rules slightly, but his own code will remain basically intact... an amoral person will attempt to force his desires on others.. if he makes rules, he will be liable to change them on a whim for personal advantage... in other words he has no respect even for his own rules...

And therein lies the problem.. that these riots were orchestrated by the amoral.. these people genuinely don't see why its wrong that they should steal stuff, or hurt people or smash stuff... they have been taught since day one that they should have what they want, and if they can't have it then they should take it... from an early age all they do has been praised, so that they see praise as their right, regardless of what they do... they have been defended by well meaning (and less well meaning) parents to whom they can do no wrong... that's right.. in this case, as in so many others, the Beard blames the parents...

Not just the parents though... any authority or pseudo authority figure is to blame... from the auntie who buys the toy the mother has already told the child they can't have, to the teacher who lets pass bad behaviour for fear of the lack of support from those above and below, to the care home assistants who for want of an easy life choose not to enforce punishments... we're all to blame... but it stems from the parents...

In my day (Oh gods!! no!!!!!) when a kid got into trouble at school, he or she got detention... not these soft detentions they get nowadays, at break or dinnertime, but real proper "you will stay two hours after school" detentions.. if they missed their bus home and the parents had to make a car journey, or if the child had to walk home in the dark cold and rain, well, that was tough, they'd misbehaved and that was that... and in all those years, with kids walking home along unlit roads, some with no footpaths, not one of the detainees was kidnapped, murdered or run over... some parents complained, but the teacher responsible would refer them to the headmaster, the head would refer them to the education department, and the education department would send them a letter telling them how important it was that they taught their child how to behave around others... there was never any mention of disciplining the teacher, no apologies no nothing... just "your kid misbehaved... now shut up." Nowadays there would be a parent at school shouting and swearing, knowing his child's rights, demanding compensation... and unfortunately getting it... what a great example to the child... "Don't like the rules? Then don't obey them.. it doesn't matter... nothing will happen to you..."

And that's why folks... the majority of kids are well brought up, regardless of background... and again regardless of background, a minority of kids are brought up by idiots... and unfortunately its the minority that become visible...and lead the ones of the majority who either think the minority is cool, or are scared to go against them... as young Macduff said, the liars and thieves are fools...

As I say, regardless of background... it's noticable that a large amount of those being brought to justice are actually from allegedly nice middle class backgrounds... but they were probably rewwarded for such everyday stuff as putting their toys away, or doing their homework, or helping around the house... or, to take from personal experience, they were rewarded for not making too much mess for mummy to pick up, or trying hard on their homework before letting dad copy and paste, or for pretending to offer to help around the house knowing that mum will do it anyway and give you a tenner to by stuff with for offering... or even worse, were taken out on a treat to make up for that nasty teacher telling you off...

Teachers must shoulder some of the blame though... too large a proportion are only in the business because the pay is good (and it is... don't argue... nearly everyone I work with is on less than 14000 quid a year, for working 40 hours a week, 48 weeks a year.. so anyone who gets a starting paypacket of more than 20,000 need not apply to the debate!)and there's very little chance of getting sacked... now some teachers are still there for the vocation, and good luck to them.. but those who care are hamstrung by regulations and fear or reprisal, and those who are in it cos it's like staying at school and getting paid, well, what do they care... most don't even care about the subject they teach (humanties graduate teaching high school science anyone??)so why should they care about discipline?? lets be honest, they still get paid...

And lest anyone think this is a jealous rant, well, it is... but at least I'm honest, and well intentioned...

Pity the same can't be said for the rioters, certain teachers, numerous parents and a small element within our police force...

Now the Beard has long been an advocate of police corruption, as long as it's openly corrupt... if we all knew how much to pay the officer to get out of a speeding ticket, well, we'd all be happier... and if these corrupt coppers were moral or immoral enough to prey on those who harm society, then really... what harm do theyu do? The beard knows, as do we all, certain elements who seem to get away with all sorts of lawbreaking simply due to lack of evidence that will stand up in court... and I won't lose sleep if certain anti social elements are banged up without the full weight of proof... as long as they definitely are a menace to society...

But the role of the police is confused, and that's why they're having so much trouble now... for so long, they've been told to try to convince an untrusting society that they are part of that society... and even worse, part of the community... a lot of people know deep inside that the beat bobby is not and never will be their friend... they don't want the bobby as their friend... and any bobby who tries to be will be viewed with deep suspicion... and then something will happen, the police will attempt to enforce the law, and it becomes very obvious that the bobby is definitly not your friend...

Far far better would have been to leave the police alone to say, "You know what? We're not anyone's friend. We don't want to be part of your community. We are here to enforce the law, nothing else, and that's what we're going to do... regardless of whether you like it or us or not..." And then they should have been left alone to do it... the role of the police should be to help society... society as a whole.. the policeman shouldn't be the guy in the stab vest who tries to play footie with th eyouth, he should be the guy who tells the youth to stop bothering the shopkeeper... but he should also be the guy who the youth can go to if he's had his phone nicked by a bunch of amoral thugs... It would help us all out...

But the Beard, as is his wont, grows tired of ranting, as I'm sure you grew tired many paragraphs ago... so it remains to be said that choice is good and bad, and so is the law, and morality is a two sided coin... and until we all learn to make our own choices instead of following those around us, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!