Crime & Violence
The solution to the crime problems in North America is not economic or technical,
it is philosophical. Poverty or low budgets for law enforcement are not
the reason for crime, nor will increased high tech crime fighting devices
be of ultimate help. I have lived in Africa and Germany and travelled often
to Japan and other parts of the world. Africa has far more poverty and far
less crime than we have. Germany and Japan also have far less crime. In
fact, almost all of the world has less crime than we in North America have.
But as other parts of the world become more "Americanized", crime
increases.
The real reasons for crime, as I pointed out, are philosophical. There are
three areas of North American philosophy which contribute to crime. The
first is the worship of freedom at all cost, the celebration of disrespect
and the encouragement of rootlessness. A part of this worship of freedom
is the encouragement of rootlessness. In most of North America we no longer
have connections to a place and its people. People and places are as interchangeable
as parts in a modern machine. And so we have produced a society that has
about as much heart and soul as a modern machine. The usual constraints
and support of friends, neighbours and relatives is eroding away to almost
nothing in some areas. There is a direct correlation between higher crime
rate and higher rootlessness the world over.
The second is the destruction of meaningful work in order to have higher
profits and greater efficiency. And the third is the transformation of our
young people into market targets whose main role in society is to be self-indulgent
consumers. These are all part of the great American way of life in the last
half of the 20th century. They have been the engine that has lifted our
continent to spectacular levels of materialism. There is, however, a price
to pay and that price is also soaring to spectacular levels. The U.S. prison
population doubled between 1980 and 1990 and the psychological and spiritual
price tag is even higher. We can expect an increasingly expensive and dreadful
future if we do not address the real philosophical roots of this malaise.
Our family lived for a year near a village in Bavaria. I enjoyed exploring
the countryside on foot or on my mountain bike along paths through farm,
village and forest. All of my ramblings were on private land and yet I never
saw a "no trespassing" or "private -
keep out" sign, nor did I see a fence to keep people out. There was
no vandalism and virtually no littering. The philosophy of the countryside
and society could be summed up by the word "respect" . respect
for the landscape, respect for grandparents and traditions, respect for
grandchildren and the future and respect for the family. During our stay
in Germany, Vice-President Quayle was lamenting the decline of "family
values". It seemed ironical that America was world champion at destroying
family values for philosophical reasons which would have never occurred
to him.
Even in the "primitive" eastern Nigerian villages where I taught
from 1963-65, respect was the dominant philosophy for village, landscape,
family, extended family, elders and children. They were poor farmers. The
Germans were rich farmers yet they were both respectful and almost crime
free.
Then it occurred to me that North America, particularly the United States
is founded on disrespect. Disrespect has been the intellectually good attitude
from George Washington, Paul Revere through to the cowboys and Rambo. Most
current American heroes are rebels and iconoclasts making monkeys of the
establishment. Disrespect is admirable and liberating. Of course, this is
a good thing within reason compared to submission to authoritarian despotism.
However like most things in life it is a double-edged sword. When is enough
enough and too much too much? If a pinch of salt improves the soup, does
that mean a pound is better? My point is that the worship of freedom and
disrespect in an extreme way may be part of the cause of our malaise.
Perhaps a more important factor is the destruction of meaningful work. If
there were meaningful, decent-paying jobs within walking distance or a short
public transportation ride for the lower income and poor people of our inner
cities, crime would drop dramatically. The young males of all races would
have hopeful and challenging options to replace drug dealing and drive-by
shootings. Hand-outs will not help. Job opportunities will produce dignity
and self-respect and cut crime to negligible levels. This will not be easy
to accomplish in our laissez-faire, buccaneering, capitalist system. Socialism
would be just as bad or worse. We need to start talking about American capitalism
and real jobs.
It is possible for an entire culture to change or at least modify its philosophy.
The establishment of the 12th century had a totally different philosophy
from that of 18th century France. The court of Louis XV was dedicated to
self-indulgence and titillated by scandal. At the same time in history the
American establishment was influenced by Quakerism. Their principles involved
hard work, thrift, dedication to communal values and co-operation. They
were not self-indulgent or pre-occupied by scandal. Which model most resembles
the present American philosophy, the 18th century French or the 18th century
American?
We have pressures from two directions working on our youth. On the one hand
(especially through television) we are training them to be self-indulgent,
to worship consumer products, to celebrate sex without love and to blow
away their troubles with bullets and other violence. This seems to be increasing.
On the other hand we are telling them they cannot count on any particular
occupation and any job will likely be temporary. And so what is rapidly
decreasing is a sense of loyalty, commitment, dedication and hope. It is
a wonder that our youth is as virtuous as it is. We can expect crime, especially
among youth, to increase as long as these trends increase. Unfortunately,
these trends are good for business. A self-indulgent consumer is the ideal.
Sex and violence also sell very well. Downsizing and automating lowers costs
and often improves efficiency. It seems perfectly clear that crime and current
business practises along with unbridled materialism are part of the same
package.
We cannot begin to address the problems of crime and social breakdown unless
we admit to the real reasons for this. Spending more money on jails and
social programmes is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. We need
to discuss a change in direction.
Robert Bateman
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