<<The future mothers of the next generation are a promising lot, it seems.
[quote begins from MSNBC, 'Mean Girls' Trend Points to Deeper Problem: Psychologists, Educators, Disturbed by lack of Adult Guidance for Teens by Alex Johnson and Chris Jansen]
Even the officer leading the police investigation admits that the video of three New York girls beating up a classmate — widely available for a time on MySpace.com — is hard to take.
“Every time I watch it — the second time you watch it, the third time — it’s not any easier than the first time,” Suffolk County Lt. Robert Edwards said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. “It’s pretty traumatic and kind of graphic.”
But you need to watch it. Psychologists and educators say it points to a disturbing trend that is being left unchecked by parents and school officials: the eagerness of American girls to seek approbation by flaunting increasingly outrageous behavior...
“The gender gap in serious violence is declining,” said a study by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado.
“If recent trends continue, female delinquents will occupy even more of the time and attention of researchers, policymakers, service providers, court officials, law enforcement agencies, and communities,” it added.
Federal statistics tend to bear out that assessment. From 1992 to 2003, the most recent year for which complete figures are available in the Justice Department’s Uniform Crime Report, the number of girls who were arrested on all charges increased by 6.4 percent, compared with a decline among boys of 16.4 percent. Most striking were the figures for assault: In that 11-year period, arrests of girls nationwide rose 41 percent, as opposed to a 4.3 percent rise among boys....
[quote begins]
Should girls be less violent than boys? Yes, they should. Boys have the testosterone excuse, and millenia of evolution to explain their tendency to resort to cavemen tactics, but these girls are presumably just nasty little pieces of work whose parents didn't bother to bring them up to behave with grace and intelligence, and especially grace, in the face of opposition and frustration.
It's impossible not to feel sorry for the little twerps---obviously their parents either haven't bothered to teach them anything about reality or are as emotionally stunted as the monsters they are rearing--- but it's also impossible not to feel disgusted by them.
Should we be extremely worried about this? Yes, we should be extremely worried. These horrible little creatures will presumably sooner or later pass their anger management issues and propensity to violence to further generations.
I mentioned in my blog from yesterday a note published at a certain blog that features violent anecdotes of one woman's crusade to make the world a more painful place for people she doesn't like---whose author one blogger finds one of the "funniest people on the internet"----who has relishingly recounted her experiences in inflicting violence on others. Here is the opinion of one blogger.
[quote from "Valleywag," The 12 Funniest People on the Internet]
No one knows who she is, but she is insane. At the age of 6, she beat up a boy while screaming "I'LL EAT YOUR EYES!" She hasn't gotten calmer.
[quote ends]
High-larious! I've noticed the unfortunate tendency of people much younger than I am (including some who are related to me) to adopt the pose of being cynically amused by deeply disturbing and arguably pathological conduct, presumably to cover their shock and disgust.
For most of them, it's a pose, and I am assuming that some of the most who adopt this pose are the would-be bad-ass little morons who get involved in hair-pulling/eye-gouging/biting/eye-blacking exchanges on their playgrounds. They bristle like hedgehogs over petty social insults and affronts to the dignity that they haven't yet earned and fight like cats. Instead of being concerned with justice (and the tempering concept of mercy)----concepts which require activation of the higher brain center---they let the tiny reptile brain embedded in their brain stem make their decisions. It's just pathetic.
I don't know whether the blog in question is truth or fiction or a mix of both, but either way, it is---or ought to be, and perhaps is meant to be---disturbing. I think it's quite possible that the author is simply pandering for her own amusement to the people who are entertained by this sort of thing; in which case, good luck to her. She's not the problem in any case; she's simply the symptom of it.
As for those who purport to find this all really amusing, I don't buy it. I take it for posturing. I am sure that most of these kids are horrified and grossed out and repelled by a great deal of what they see and hear on television, at films, and on the internet, but to be cool these days is to be free of the capacity for moral outrage and that capacity can be blunted by overexposure to outrages that go unremarked or uncondemned.
It's ridiculous and sad, but it's not what I'd call funny, since women who learn to enjoy inflicting pain are by definition not good candidates for motherhood and child-rearing. It's not good for a baby to be born to a woman who finds it violent and affirming to fight, or even one who looks back with relish on the pain and fear she has inflicted during her earlier life.
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