Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 16:43:53 +1000 From: Darren <darren.smith-AT-unsw.EDU.AU> Subject: Re: Zero-tolerance policing One of the reasons for an increase in the incidents of youth delinquency is the power relations which operate in relation to them. Rebellion comes from alienation: it is an alternative method of control ie through grafitti art, crime, music etc. One reason why this rebellion is so visual is the fact that young people have little control over political/educational/vocational etc decision-making processes. To take a Marxist angle, young people are alienated. Rebellion is a means of asserting that control and power categorizes that alternative model of control as criminal as a means of silencing it or disarming it. I'm not saying that increasing youth participation nis the answer but it certainly is an important consideration. DS At 06:19 PM 7/28/98 +1200, you wrote: >Vunch challengs us to think about > >'the problems of massive high school dropping-out', and 'so much >violence in the first place' > > >In talking about human beings we have this strange romantic notion of >what is normal. We imagine an idyllic condition and think that is >standard for human beings and somehow we are currently off the gold >standard as it were. It may well be that the massive high school >not-dropping-out of a previous era ( when? ) was the oddity, not present >conditions. and anyway, is attendance at high school an indication of >the health of a society or simply its prosperity or rate of >unemployment? > >I am as much against violence as anyone, indeed my life has been >seriously affected by it, but I would challenge anyone who thinks that >violence isn't the norm in our society. Indeed Foucault examines >Clausewitz's aphorism that war is diplomacy by other means, and reverses >it: diplomacy/law is war by other means: the bottom line is who can >hurt who more. He says that the law is ultimately founded on the ability >to kill. (Power/knowledge, two lectures, I think) I think what is the >recent difference is the media attention to forms of violence among the >poor, and there potential for affecting the not-poor. Most crimes are >committed by the poor against the poor, and these are not frankly what >schools or vigilante societies worry about. But the threat to people of >property is heavily played up. > >The emphasis on dropping out/crime/unemployment amounts to a kind of >package of goods which young people particularly are being sold in order >to keep them in line, under supervision in schools, or jobs, and has an >impact on parents and teachers as they struggle to help their little >charges avoid a fate worse than death. In fact when I reflect on the >phrase I just used, the process is exactly the same as the Victorian way >of keeping women under control by the threat of exclusion. > >I think that perhaps what is new is the effect of technology; where once >young working class men could be effectively reduced in number - and >had some value to their society/govt - by sending them off to war, the >existence of nuclear weapons makes this an unattractive option, so these >poor sods have no use at all. Factory owners usually prefer women >because they are more docile and cheaper. We have a high suicide rate >for young males, but the effect on the problem is minimal. Maybe Dean >Swift had the right idea. > > >Nesta > >
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