Society

[Lou Girardin]

I was musing during quiet moment.
When I was a kid there was a murder at the Italian club in Wellington (The La Mattina murder). This caused a huge furore because killings were extremely rare in those days. The members of the club were mortified that this happened in our community.
Now we have animals who'll kill a hitchiker for no discernable reason. Did she turn him down? Or did he want her meagre possessions? Whatever it was, it hardly seemed worth killing for.
These days, I think we average a murder every 2 days or so.
Why?
What has turned so many people into psychpaths?

[spudchucka]

What has turned so many people into psychpaths?

I'm amazed that you haven't suggested that speed cameras, the introduction of the highway patrol and the 11kph speed tolerance could be to blame.

[scumdog]

I know what you mean Lou, when I was a kid in Nelson (as opposed to still being a kid where I am at present! ) there was a murder of of a taxi-driver, it was in the headlines all over the country for ages, likewise the trial of the murderer (about 1964) but now we get killing regularly - and more and more often.
We've had three homicides down here recently whereas it was many years before that when Bailey did his thing.

What gives with the old 'live and let live' theory? why does it not exist to the same extent?

[Postie]

I was musing during quiet moment.
When I was a kid there was a murder at the Italian club in Wellington (The La Mattina murder). This caused a huge furore because killings were extremely rare in those days. The members of the club were mortified that this happened in our community.
Now we have animals who'll kill a hitchiker for no discernable reason. Did she turn him down? Or did he want her meagre possessions? Whatever it was, it hardly seemed worth killing for.
These days, I think we average a murder every 2 days or so.
Why?
What has turned so many people into psychpaths?

TV, movies, society itself. More recently video games like GTA Vice city. who knows, its just life and it seems to be less and less valued every day.
It seems that everyone looks for excuses in every human fault, they had a shit childhood or they have a mental disease. greater use of inhibiting and addictive drugs, the worst one being P. Every fucker has an excuse and no reasons.

[tracyprier]

Breakdown of the basic family unit and "modern" parenting that teaches people to do what they like and screw everyone else.

Also, I used to be one of those that said violence in the media was not a cause, now I tend to believe the opposite.

[scumdog]

TV, movies, society itself. More recently video games like GTA Vice city. who knows, its just life and it seems to be less and less valued every day.
It seems that everyone looks for excuses in every human fault, they had a shit childhood or they have a mental disease. greater use of inhibiting and addictive drugs, the worst one being P. Every fucker has an excuse and no reasons.

and takes no responsibility!!

[James Deuce]

TV, movies, society itself. More recently video games like GTA Vice city. who knows, its just life and it seems to be less and less valued every day.

Nope. All a smokescreen. One simple word: Me. One complex social revolution: Post Modernism

It seems that everyone looks for excuses in every human fault, they had a shit childhood or they have a mental disease. greater use of inhibiting and addictive drugs, the worst one being P. Every fucker has an excuse and no reasons.

Yup. Thanks to the pernicious concept that self is more important than society, community, family, and friends. Blimey. Maybe we do have something to learn from Maori social structures.

We've also changed our goals in life from simply existing and doing the best we can, to a search for personal fulfilment and happiness.

We're paying the price for making it OK to live an undisciplined, selfish life.

[spudchucka]

We're paying the price for making it OK to live an undisciplined, selfish life.

I tottaly agree.

[Sniper]

I think its just down to parenthood. I don't see how the kids can grow up to be respectable adults when all they see while growing up id drunken rowdyness.

[James Deuce]

Breakdown of the basic family unit and "modern" parenting that teaches people to do what they like and screw everyone else.

Also, I used to be one of those that said violence in the media was not a cause, now I tend to believe the opposite.

The family unit is an Industrial age myth. Human beings have always lived in family groups, with extended family providing care and education for children, and care and help for the broader family. A solo mother would be no such thing in most pre-industrial cultures.

You're right about the message that children are given, and that includes such simple things as it not being socially acceptable for a child to make their own way too and from school anymore. They have to be "protected" from a vast seething hoard of disgusting people who would prey upon them - so sayeth the "media". Best fun I had as a kid was getting to and from school. Now we drop them off and pick them up, reinforcing the message that no one is to be trusted.

[Motu]

I thought it was obvious - the killer drove a 4x4....case closed,next please....

[kerryg]

The society I grew up in was a more inclusive one than now. I see beggars on the street every day (I work in Auckland's CBD). Kids are working as prostitutes in South Auckland. There are old lags in filthy clothes wandering around muttering and cursing and picking up cigarette butts not 50 metres from my office.....probably as I type this. Where I park in the morning I walk past an area (first floor stairwell thingy in Elliott St) where homeless people sleep. You can sometimes smell it before you see it. We tolerate now what would have been unthinkable a generation ago. There are people who are marginalised now, for whom there were better safety nets in the past. I think these days we value our fellow humans less, we have lost empathy. That's a part of it. I'm not offering any solutions, just an observation...

[Sniper]

I thought it was obvious - the killer drove a 4x4....case closed,next please....

That only counts if the victim owned a motorcycle

[Hitcher]

I blame the Labour Gummint...

[Biff]

TV, movies, society itself. More recently video games like GTA Vice city. who knows, its just life and it seems to be less and less valued every day.

There is loads of evidence to prove that you may be onto something there. Not that watching/playing violent games/films etc necessarily turn you into a killer – but watching such violence, even on the news, definitely de-sensitises people to killing, death and suffering. So we've become more accustomed to it as a society.