For those of us who live in Australia or other first world countries, things are looking pretty good at the moment. Let's face it, even if you're a complete train wreck of a person, the Government will still give you money to buy metho and the salvos will give you soup and an old coat. When have winos ever had it better?
That being said, one of the features of the modern world is its inclusiveness and acceptance. Are you a transexual junkie with wierd plastic surgery and tourettes syndrome? Society will still accept you for who you are. Are you a former member of some violent militia who raped and murdered your way through Africa and moved to Australia for a new life? Again, you'll be treated like everyone else (or better in some cases).
Our world is one in which pretty much anything is accepted, if not by every single individual, then certainly by society in general and by governments in particular. And that list of what is acceptable is slowly becoming wider. Only this week there was controversy about Australian artist Donald Friend and his accounts in his diaries of being "seduced" by 10 year old Balinese boys. He, together with that old freak Bill Henson, are being defended by their buddies in the arts world, because they're well, artistic, and artists shouldn't have to conform to the same rules as everyone else.
The problem with this acceptance is that the more we accept something, the more we promote it as being not only acceptable, but potentially good.
A prime example of this is the two parent family. Traditionally, in Australia, the vast majority of people stayed together in marriage their entire lives. If some young girl were to get knocked up the natural reaction was to get her married off quickly or else hide the pregnancy and hide the child in an orphanage or pass her off as a younger sister.
Now the stigma associated with unwed mothers was obviously very serious and no doubt very difficult to deal with for those who went through this situation. However, this stigma also meant that the number of single mothers out there was considerably lower.
Now some apologists out there may claim that alternatives are just as good, but it seems to be pretty compelling that, in general, you're more likely to turn out alright if you grew up in a two parent household (and by that I mean one of each!). So as the stigma of being a single mother has been removed, so more young girls have been knocked up. Their shiftless, lazy arse impregnators have moved on because society no longer forces them to be accountable (except for the farce that is the child support system) and the kids grow up with a single mother, sometimes with multiple siblings, all with different dads.
This then means those kids are more likely to have issues, be on welfare, go on reality TV, sell drugs, grow moustaches and drive around in hotted up Camira's, all things that are undesirable for society as a whole.
This is the law of unintended consequences writ large.
What to do about it? Well that is definitely the 100 billion dollar question. For possibly the first time ever, I don't know. You can't go back, you can't put the problems back in the box.
I may write further about this and other ways in which our new acceptance have created unintended consequences that change our society for the worse, such as alcohol trading hours, pornography or public violence.
cheers
Harry
That being said, one of the features of the modern world is its inclusiveness and acceptance. Are you a transexual junkie with wierd plastic surgery and tourettes syndrome? Society will still accept you for who you are. Are you a former member of some violent militia who raped and murdered your way through Africa and moved to Australia for a new life? Again, you'll be treated like everyone else (or better in some cases).
Our world is one in which pretty much anything is accepted, if not by every single individual, then certainly by society in general and by governments in particular. And that list of what is acceptable is slowly becoming wider. Only this week there was controversy about Australian artist Donald Friend and his accounts in his diaries of being "seduced" by 10 year old Balinese boys. He, together with that old freak Bill Henson, are being defended by their buddies in the arts world, because they're well, artistic, and artists shouldn't have to conform to the same rules as everyone else.
The problem with this acceptance is that the more we accept something, the more we promote it as being not only acceptable, but potentially good.
A prime example of this is the two parent family. Traditionally, in Australia, the vast majority of people stayed together in marriage their entire lives. If some young girl were to get knocked up the natural reaction was to get her married off quickly or else hide the pregnancy and hide the child in an orphanage or pass her off as a younger sister.
Now the stigma associated with unwed mothers was obviously very serious and no doubt very difficult to deal with for those who went through this situation. However, this stigma also meant that the number of single mothers out there was considerably lower.
Now some apologists out there may claim that alternatives are just as good, but it seems to be pretty compelling that, in general, you're more likely to turn out alright if you grew up in a two parent household (and by that I mean one of each!). So as the stigma of being a single mother has been removed, so more young girls have been knocked up. Their shiftless, lazy arse impregnators have moved on because society no longer forces them to be accountable (except for the farce that is the child support system) and the kids grow up with a single mother, sometimes with multiple siblings, all with different dads.
This then means those kids are more likely to have issues, be on welfare, go on reality TV, sell drugs, grow moustaches and drive around in hotted up Camira's, all things that are undesirable for society as a whole.
This is the law of unintended consequences writ large.
What to do about it? Well that is definitely the 100 billion dollar question. For possibly the first time ever, I don't know. You can't go back, you can't put the problems back in the box.
I may write further about this and other ways in which our new acceptance have created unintended consequences that change our society for the worse, such as alcohol trading hours, pornography or public violence.
cheers
Harry
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