the end of the world as we know it

I am disappointed with the world.

Again.

It never fails to disappoint me in disappointing me.

Every day I hope I move closer to my goal of escaping the world and becoming a recluse.

I've mentioned before that I live in a violent sort of town. 20,000 people, mining, army, farming, lots of testosterone, lots of bars, lots of beer, nothing to do. It doesn't lead anywhere good.

Last time I wrote about it a young man was bashed to within an inch of his life. Just down the road. And in the next few months, some other young men will go to jail for doing that to him.

Many lives ruined over what, five minutes of "fun".

No winners there.

A couple of nights ago another young man here was bashed and kicked to within an inch of his life. He's on life support with a fractured skull.

And I feel broken hearted about the whole affair.

Because everyone talks about it. And everyone says - oh, that was awful, oh poor guy, oh, they need their arses kicked.

But they don't really care.

People are so desensitised to violence that they say all the right words, but don't really feel anything.

You know what I thought about when I heard this had happened? I thought about his mother getting a phone call at 3am in the morning. I thought about her ringing the airline, booking a flight, making the trip to a shitty country town in NSW where her son was working, so she could stand beside his bed and watch him fight for his life, because twelve drunken idiots had decided his life wasn't worth anything.

Her beautiful boy.

Her beautiful boy come to this.

And if he dies, all he'll be to anyone is three or four lines in a newspaper.

A few years ago it used to be our teenage girls we had to worry about. And god, I still do, every time they leave the house. But now it seems to be our boys we have to worry about more. So much senseless random violence out there.

Kickings, bashings, glassings, stabbings.

Someones son, brother, father, boyfriend, husband.

Spare a thought for this young man. Wrong place, wrong time people say. Is that meant to be some sort of comfort.

 

 

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Snowy
What can I say, Cat. You've said all that needs to be said. I hope he pulls through, and doesn't suffer any permanent physical injury. Mentally, he's probably maimed for life. So very sad, and so very unnecessary.
Flamingo Dancer
A lot of young men in Brisbane no longer go out to the night clubs and hotels on the weekends anymore, it is too dangerous. I worte a few months agon about a friend of daughter 1 who was glassed and has lost an eye ....stupid, senseless violence. I think no only of the mother of the victim, but the mother of the perpetrator, I hope she hangs her head in shame too. To raise a child not to respect another is the worst failure of parenthood.
Hangaku Gozen
Friends wonder why I worry about my son more than my daughters, since young women are seen as more vulnerable. I do worry about them, but they use common sense and are more cautious about going out at night or alone. On the other hand, my son, like most young men, rarely thinks about his personal safety, especially in public venues like clubs or festivals. He's admitted to being punched and pushed and having his glasses broken: but when I express concern about these incidents, he laughs and thinks they're funny.

I know alcohol plays a large part in these incidents, but could it be we're not teaching young men about the consequences of even casual violence? I've read about increasing incidences of fights and beatings among young women, but those rarely reach the level of maiming and death that occur among men.

The message has to go out that violence is not a "natural" part of being male.
cat
yes, even if he survives - he'll be mentally scarred - as well his family, and most likely the families of the boys who did it
cat
Yes I saw a story on tv a while back about the Gold Coast and Brisbane clubs. They're trialling an early lockout system in Newcastle that seems to have dropped the amount of assaults there but there are still far too many. And its that lack of respect for life that shocks me as well. They attack these people so violently and randomly and don't care at all that they could kill them.
cat
My son is the same. I'm always telling him not to walk home at night on his own and he laughs at me. I was thinking last night about it - we have groups of people come to the school to talk about road safety. Usually a police office, an ambulance driver and someone who has lost a child (or sometimes more) in a car accident. They need the same sort of people to come around and talk about these bashings and stabbings that are going on now. I mean you shouldn't have to teach kids to respect life, but it seems that you have to. We have a lot of glassings going on at the moment and the girls get involved in them. Very nasty.
Waterbaby
I share the comments by Snowy & FD.
butterflyeffect

It might be generally guys' attitudes towards beating people up and getting beaten up.

Over here, it's almost celebratory. A group of teens will tie their friend up and beat him up on his birthday and then he gets to beat up his other friends on their birthdays when it's their turn. I don't get what's the fun of that or how they got the idea that it was supposed to be fun. But it's been around since when I was in junior college (abt 10 years ago).

cat
thats weird!!! the beatings over here are definitely not done in fun though
Waterbaby
@butterfly - damn, that's just sick.
Ninja

I could have written about the same things, Cat. My very same sentiments.. too much, way too much aggro out there. I'm not sure if it's because people generally can't cope with our faster pace of living these days that they lash out., or if drugs and alcohol simply fuel the latent aggression that's there.

Either way, I always wonder if it's worth feeling sorry for fools who continue to get into fights and lash out at the nearest person.

I don't blame the cops for arming themselves if that's what it takes to keep these yobbos in line.

Maybe, just maybe we have all got it wrong. Maybe we trust people too much to exercise good common sense and decency... when they clearly can't themselves.

cat
I'd like to be able to arm my kids - just with capsicum spray mind you - wish it was legal here.

I never feel sorry for those guys/girls - I feel sorry for their family, but then you have to wonder a bit what they're like anyway. There just seems to be a general lack of respect. Sigh, now I sound like an old person.
Ninja
No, you don't sound that way at all. If anything, you sound like what a lot of people out there are thinking but have become too jaded to speak out anymore. But we have to keep it up because there are lots of things wrong with the way kids are being raised in a lot of homes, and even more wrong in the way they are being taught in schools. Guess what? They get to their teen years and are none the wiser about what's acceptable and what's not. They watch the Barry Halls carry on like a thug on the footy field, and then think: "Shit, if Barry can do that, it must be alright then." It all goes to crap from there.

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