Originally Posted by
ninjanana
To me, the root of societies problems are quite clear, they stem from a complete lack of respect for authority. Until we as a society face up to this problem we will continue our downward spiral.
You could ask, WHY, there is a complete lack of respect for authority. I agree, and I think it is increasingly deserved! Those in authority show an increasing lack of connection, empathy, sympathy or even awareness of those they are supposedly in authority over! Society does need to face up to it, but it won't come from the top! People are going to have to seriously rethink their attitudes to what their society should be and how it should be achieved for the betterment of all, but, I don't see that happening any year soon!
I for one don't care whether citizens respect authority out of fear of the consequences or respect it for the benefits it delivers to all. The result is the same, a safe society were people don't have to fear being mown down by criminals in cars.
Sorry - the result is not the same, although it may appear to be at a rudimentary glance! Currently, authority is going down the "you will respect us, or, by God, (they always throw in the "by God" bit), you will suffer the consequences, route!!! This appears to be prevalent over most facets of society and works by punishing anybody and everybody, who even attempts to think outside the bounds, set by "the authorities. Unfortunately - all it does is grow a larger and larger pool of simmering resentment, and not just from the "bad" types. Mr and Mrs Joe Average get pulled in and spat out as well - and they grow resentfull - and it spreads throughout society. You would say, that's OK, as long as they do what they are told! Might work for a short time, but, does'nt work in the medium/long run, and creates far more problems than it solves.
EG. Try training a dog by beating it with a stick - creating a regime of fear and punishment. You can do it - but you end up with a dog that, given the slightest chance will turn on you and try and tear your throat out. Compare that with training a dog through reward and encouragement - you end up with a dog that will give his life to protect you.
People are the same - treat them with a bit of respect, acknowledgement that they are reasonably capable and intelligent, encouragement to do what they do best, ie - don't treat everyone as though they are blithering imbiciles, (even though some are), and you will get a lot more out of them, than continually hitting them with more and heavier punishments for more and more minor "offences", treating them like a mushroom crop! You look around you, and all you see is a society that is more and more aggressive - people at each others throats as they fight over the lesser and lesser scraps of power they have over their lives - every one telling every one else what they should be doing, governments treating the people like shit, police trying to turn themselves into an internal army, to "control" the people, all the vast inequalities of the past, which were once, well on the way to being minimised, growing and swelling, like the population....but....I digress
As usual, looking at the comments on here (and, online generally), probably reaveals more about the posters than the subject.....would more laws have stopped this event.....no! Would heavier deterrent sentences have prevented this.......probably not.
Why do these idiots run? - mainly, because they are scared - or arrogant, which is another result of fear! Do the media help - no - because it seems, these days, their job is to push up fear & hysteria levels to heights, unknown - well, a frightened populace is an unthinking populace who can be told what to do and think! The Lawyers daughter who took off from a check point and killed a motorist was certainly not thinking - just a blast of pure fear of what would happen having failed a breath test overriding her sense and kicking in the flight mechanism.
Originally Posted by
oab
I'm not saying that I know what the answer is to stopping this shit from happening, or if it's even possible
Originally Posted by
Patrick
Recent changes - 28 day impoundment for failing to stop and a mandatory cumulative 3 month disqualification (added on top of whatever other disqually one gets...) so they can't be tossed any more....
I don't think this sort of thing can be stopped - reduced, maybe. As, in this case, the guy was already disqualified, I do think there should be more active enforcement of disqualifications. Here, in Perth, there is now a unit, that follows up on disqals, where, if it is suspected the driver is still driving, they stake them out and arrest them if they are caught driving, or attempting to drive. The car is impounded and they are carted off to the lock up, with some hefty fines ensuing and vehicles being forfeited! Would it have helped in this case...probably not....probably...in this particular case, the only thing that would have worked (thanks Jim) would have been an RPG, fired the moment the guy took off!....or .44 soft nosed bullets fired into the tyres!
“- He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.”
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