What is happening to society?

robbalmbra · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:48

Society, what society?

"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular."

ethan · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:49

The problem, however, is that our media-culture and general information-everything society now has more continued 24-hour LIVE! NEWS! exposure to bad events than ever before. Things are repeated continually as news-stations look for the dramatic or tragic narrative angle to sell to people sat at home.

.....and what about the violence and crime that goes on unreported ?

shadow_boxer · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:51

So where do you love in the "North"?

King Damager · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:59

Zero Pope said:
She left the door open???

Was my first thought.

I could imagine leaving it unlocked, but I wouldn't leave it 'ajar' or 'to'...

kd

Craterloads · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:16

OldCoals said:
?

Is English your primary language?

shadow_boxer said:
So where do you love in the "North"?

Bradford

King Damager · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:20

Craterloads said:
Is English your primary language?

Don't know if his is, but if you're from Bradford...

kd

Craterloads · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:23

King Damager said:
Don't know if his is, but if you're from Bradford...

kd

D.P. · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:32

elmarko1234 said:
Newsflash, stupid poor people with no hope do terrible things to obtain material wealth in a society obsessed with material gain & which also judges people by what they possess.

Reduce income inequality you want to live in a society with less crime.

So you advocate paying people not to commit crime? That is not very sensible, better to take approaches that actively try to reduce crime rate. Increased police presence, improved general security, improved rehabilitation, stronger consequences of braking the law, etc., etc.

RomanNose · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:34

D.P. said:
So you advocate paying people not to commit crime? That is not very sensible, better to take approaches that actively try to reduce crime rate. Increased police presence, improved general security, improved rehabilitation, stronger consequences of braking the law, etc., etc.

I swear you just took what he was saying out of context completely, he said reduce income equality. He didn't say anything about paying people not to commit crime.
There are thousands of ways to improve income equality where you don't need to pay people to not commit crime, i.e grammar schools, free University for poor, free tutoring.

antijoke · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:38

Was the woman who was robbed Asian?

Castiel · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:43

D.P. said:
So you advocate paying people not to commit crime? That is not very sensible, better to take approaches that actively try to reduce crime rate. Increased police presence, improved general security, improved rehabilitation, stronger consequences of braking the law, etc., etc.

And positive approaches would also include reducing the factors that encourage criminality, such as income inequality, deprivation, poor education, unemployment and increasing other factors such as low cost housing, access to training, social mobility, increased education.

Other factors such as bullying, truancy, youth unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness, familial abuse and so should also be on the list.

All these would arguably be more effective than just taking the approach of dealing with the consequences rather than the causes.

V F · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:44

InKursion said:
More than a decade on we're still being reminded of Madeleine McCann's abduction... really?

May 2007.

Craterloads · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:44

anticonscience said:
Was the woman who was robbed Asian?

Yep

The Chemist · 27 Jun 2012 at 23:22

Craterloads said:
Yep

I would have guessed that too, I live in Essex and we've had robbers target Asian homes as they know that we keep the gold hidden somewhere in the house rather than banks recently. Most cases so far have been people leaving the downstairs windows open during the night, leaving the garden door unlocked etc. People in my area I think generally lack awareness on safety and protecting the home, probably naive to think that such things would happen in the suburbs....

Twirlywoos · 27 Jun 2012 at 23:42

OldCoals said:
?

my thoughts exactly.

flexo786 · 27 Jun 2012 at 23:45

similar thing been happening in sheffield and birmingham as well with asian houses being targeted. had heard a couple of stories of the same nature

Twirlywoos · 27 Jun 2012 at 23:49

Craterloads said:
Yep

That explains it. Asains are being targeted for Gold, as there is a stereotype that they keep gold under their beds. Whilst some don't the majority of stupid Asians do.

With the increase in Gold prices situations will get worse.

Only 2 weeks ago armed robbers entered my house at about 2am. Here is the story which the media wrote,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-18459030

We're still very much shaken but at least both were sentenced to jail and are awaiting trial whilst the Police are still investigating the other two who were also on the scene.

InKursion · 28 Jun 2012 at 00:43

ethan said:
.....and what about the violence and crime that goes on unreported ?

What of it? 50 years ago 99% of violent crime went unreported. Nowadays, say for instance, 80% of violent crime goes unreported. We are undoubtedly, through the spread of 24/7 live media coverage and an ever more hyper-connected media world, reporting far more crime. Newspapers sell more when they sell tragic stories. The television news adds a bit more drama - and hence makes its viewing figures go up - when it reports on graphic crimes in the local area, or else a scandal. It's titillating.

I'm not saying every crime is still reported. My point was that, proportionally, our media is reporting more crimes than ever before. That's part of the reason why it seems like 'society is going down the drain', even though many crime statistics - especially violent crimes and homicides - have actually been in steady decrease for years and years. Crime is actually going down but reporting of said-crime is going way up. Result? Threads like this that talk about society nearing apocalypse, even though it's statistically safer to live nowadays than ever before.

InKursion · 28 Jun 2012 at 00:44

V F said:
May 2007.

Shows how much I care for it, really. Still, a long time ago. Stop talking about it and stop parading her miserable and ethically dubious parents about. Stop giving them airtime to plug their new tears-n-tragedy book, out now in WHSmiths. It's disgusting. Dwelling on tragedy.

elmarko · 28 Jun 2012 at 06:41

RomanNose said:
I swear you just took what he was saying out of context completely, he said reduce income equality. He didn't say anything about paying people not to commit crime.
There are thousands of ways to improve income equality where you don't need to pay people to not commit crime, i.e grammar schools, free University for poor, free tutoring.

Thank you,

Personally, I have no idea how he got from reducing income inequality to paying (bribing) people not to commit crimes.

It's merely an appreciation for the reality that increases income inequality tends to result in higher crime rates in modern western democracies (on average).

Castiel said:
And positive approaches would also include reducing the factors that encourage criminality, such as income inequality, deprivation, poor education, unemployment and increasing other factors such as low cost housing, access to training, social mobility, increased education.

Other factors such as bullying, truancy, youth unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness, familial abuse and so should also be on the list.

All these would arguably be more effective than just taking the approach of dealing with the consequences rather than the causes.

+1.

Exactly the point I was also trying to convey, prevention is always preferable for one major reason.

It actually prevents people from being victims in the first place (Which is what really matters) - that less people suffer overall.

If we only deal with the symptoms & ignore the causes we will never make social progress - that I can guarantee you.