Cuphandle, what you propose is just not enough! What we should be doing is banning computer games, violent films and other incitations to violence. kids and youths who commit crime must locked up in adult prisons. Children should be made to work for a living and learn about hard work from the age of 12 or 13 at the latest. Troublsome children should be identified before reaching age 5 or 6 and must be taken from their parents and raised in government centres that instill proper bredding and manners. In fact, as we all know that poor people cause the most problems and they are only poor due to laziness or stupidity, we do should IQ testing on unborn babies and abort those that don't meet certain benchmarks. Yes yes, I can see it now...the perfect society... we just have to control things better....control....

Foxy my friend you seem to have copped a hammering on this one (and from some who I though would have considered who started the thread).

As a bystander your opening post looked a lot like what some of our fundy friends who keep telling us that the world is falling to pieces because we don't follow their god post. Stuff that has been posted over and over again but not backed up by facts. Maybe if you had put the stats in that recent post up front some might have taken a different tack.

I wonder how much of that violence is violence within groups rather than random violence against outsiders and how many perpetrators are involved. A small number of people committing multiple assaults can cause a significant shift in stats.

Some reports that I've read indicate that some groups have taken to a stylised American Gang culture, not many and often not typical of their cultural groupings.

There are places I'd not choose to go in the early morning but my impression is that there have always been risky areas (Brisbane's Fortitude Valley and the Queen St Mall being two).

Bullying in schools still happens but at least teachers seem to be working to deal with it more responsibly than when I was a child. I can tell my son with some confidence that he should report bullying, not a sense I had as a child.

Please don't head for those hills, you would be missed around here.

R0bert

Well... of course.. it is the outcome of 'social evolution' :)

We were once 'bad'.. we held ideas like 'respect for elders' close to our hearts.. but that all went out in the 60s...and now.. we see how wonderfull has our social evolution become.

I blame 2 things.

1/ MIUAUG
2/ Abandonment of the best of the values of our grandparents. (some of their values we could do without)

Ultimately, being disconnected from the Almighty has the effect of creating 'anchorless moral zombies'... floating about in the raging sea of life.

Just think.....what actually 'shapes' conscience? What causes a man ro women who absolutely KNOW that they won't be found out for such and such.. from refrain from doing it ? Alternatively, a flexible, situation based conscience which is assured by all and sundry that it is answerable only to 'the law' might act according to the dictum "If I can get away with it...why not"?

So... as one poster said when I mentioned "The Answer is Christ"...
"Whats the question" aah.. well..perhaps Foxy has actually asked it ?

Dear Robert,

Thanks for understanding. You're right, I should have elaborated much further than I did in my introductory post.

As 'The Age' newspaper reported, in 1988 Professor John Nieuwenhuysen advised the premier, John Cain, to change the laws in Victoria to make it easier to open licensed premises. His aim, he says, was to promote a more European, civilised style of drinking.

Two decades later, his recommended reforms have resulted in an explosion of liquor licenses across the state, from 3,200 in 1988 to 19,000 today, and a concomitant outburst of binge drinking and unprovoked ultraviolence that has left police frayed and struggling to cope.

This is not, Professor Nieuwenhuysen says, what he had in mind. It's safe to say that it is not what the majority of this city's residents had in mind either.

I feel so strongly about this issue. My nephew (just turned 21) has a serious problem with alcohol.

Clearly, more needs to be done to tackle the rising incidence of alcohol-related crime and to gain some understanding of the cultural shift among young people that underpins it.

Police and venue operators say the 2am 'lockout' has stemmed the flow of late-night revellers from other entertainments venues around the city to the hotspots in the CBD, although there have been reports of violence occuring outside premises where people have been refused entry.

But it is time for tougher measures to be taken such as that suggested by the Australian Hotels Association chief executive, Brian Kearney, who has called on the Melbourne City Council to impose a temporary freeze on any new bars in the city. This "circuit breaker," as he describes it, is a step in the right direction: a moratorium on new liquor licences would give police, concerned licensees and the council breathing space to consider more far-reaching solutions to a problem that threatens the city's amenity and reputation.

"Tougher Measures"..... treats the symptom..not the cause.

-Alienation (self inflicted) from God....leads to
-Alienation from each other...which leads to
-Family breakdown.....
-mixed families where stable anchors or predictability are increasingly less... everything becomes a blurr....

then with Freddy Mercury we sing through our slurring mouths and glazed drunken eyes..."Nothing really matters...any more"

Oh please. why is that religious god-botherers believe that every ill that befalls mankind is due to a lack of faith and belief in god (and just your god mind, not that other bloke's who lives down the street, his apparently doesn't count)

it may amaze you to learn that you can be a hard-working professional, busy raising a family, who likes getting pissed now and then and certainly did it a lot during my youth, who has never been in a fight, never gone to jail, never rob, raped, murdered, abused, happy-slapped or generally bothered anyone, believes in gay equal rights, mixed race couples and families, gay adoption, freedom from censorship, self-responsibility and is an atheist (for want of a better word).

You don't have to believe in god to be able to contribute to society