Friday 8 April 2011

Law and Order

By Mike Wilson

Spare the rod and spoil the child. We were brought up with this sentence ringing in our ears. Growing up was a time to respect people in authority and of course one’s own parents.

It was only when we had grown up that we started to become less respectful as we considered the external influences on our environment and finally we had a voice to be heard in either agreeing or in disagreeing with those in authority. Especially if we considered that they were not sensible enough to command our respect, why then should we obey their laws.

The answer of course is very simple – fear of retribution. In the days when laws were simple any transgressor was dealt with according to the law. Murderers were hanged, thieves were jailed as were rapists and the punishment for lesser crimes was a heavy fine. These fines were such that the law breaker was hurt enough not to do it again.

Our society was just and ordered. People could go about their lives with no fear of being robbed, raped or murdered, at least in most cases. This wasn’t a utopian society but it was one where people felt safe and were free to criticize governments without fear of retaliation.

Whatever happened to change this into the shoddy mess we have today where apologists make laws for minorities, criminalize free speech and allow transgressors to get away without penalty?
I think we need look no further than the civil libertarians who have turned this world upside down and in so doing have made victims of the criminals and criminals of the wronged. This coupled with the politically correct adherents have so emasculated and diluted our original laws as to make them practically useless in maintaining law and order.

We are probably three generations removed from the time that laws started to be changed in favour of the PC brigade. As each generation was brought up with these ongoing changes society was starting to be crippled, slowly at first until we reached present day and our current predicament.

Parents no longer care about their child’s actions in public and have become unaccountable for their misdemeanours. This is probably the major reason for the breakdown of society as young people repeat the crimes of their predecessors and so it becomes worse and worse. Our current laws do not have the ability to handle young offenders effectively.

These young people are at the centre of alcohol and drug related crimes including assaults and even murder. Sure they can be locked up after the event but why can’t they be stopped in the first place? It is because the Civil Libertarians look after them and make sure that their rights are not infringed as individuals. Their parents or grandparents were not allowed to smack them as they grew up and the old spare the rod adage comes to the fore.

We hear of children at school receiving a clip around the ear for being cheeky and having to be counseled for psychological damage whilst the terrible teacher who has tried and failed to control a classroom of 40 + children is dismissed from the job for abuse. It surely is no wonder that society finds itself totally helpless to control the actions of lawbreakers when we seem to go out of our way to condone stupidity and make victims of transgressors.

Unfortunately for us the damage has been done and there is no way back to a well ordered and respectful society where the laws were such that perpetrators were dealt with properly and fear of retribution was a controlling factor in our lives. Today these new controls of civil libertarianism, political correctness, racial discrimination and EU multiculturalism have so dampened down our heritage of democracy and freedom as to make them unworkable in today’s society.

Is there an answer or do we simply have to go on repeating the mistakes of the previous generation until our society that has been steadfast for the last thousand years simply implodes through moral turpitude? Either change the laws or else take what is surely coming!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As a teacher in an urban US high school, I see first hand the results of the 40 year ban on discipline. My students get no real discipline at home, and we teachers have been stripped of any authority in the classroom. We are told "students are different today - you have to adjust."

If you cannot tell a student anything without an argument (or worse, a desk being thrown at you), how can you teach them subjects not intrinsically fun? These "poor" students, who all get free breakfast and lunch, have and are addicted to the fanciest cell phones and mp3 players (not allowed according to school policy). Trying to take one away from a student is like trying to stop him from breathing.

It is truly a mess. We who can see know the answers, but we are shouted down by administration, and told we have to "learn to deal with the new reality."