Today my eyes opened.

I was walking to the community drop in centre, were I used to be on placement and now volunteer with every now and then and found a man laid out on the street. He had basically taken enough heroins to knock out a small giraffe. Being the type of person I am I gave this man assistance. He might be a drug addict but I wanted to help him so I phoned for an ambulance, popped him in the recovery position and so on. This has opened up my eyes in a very real way showing me just how broken our society has become and it got me thinking all day.

First off all the volume of people who were walking by with judgmental faces looking down on this man, it were as if he had lost his humanity and was not just worthy of their human compassion, when in fact the opposite is true. By not showing this man compassion I would say it was they who lost their humanity. People would stop to help a wounded dog, but not a rat, and this is how the treated him, like a rat. And why not because they could tell he was a drug addict but he had a distinctly pungent unpleasant smell, looked dirty and his clothing resembled rags. I could not tell he had taken drugs until I examined him and noticed the track marks on his wrists and his pupil reactions.

I do not blame this man for his addiction rather I blame the drug dealer who is providing him with the tools to become an addict. Sure he is the one who eventually decides to take the drug’s but without the dealer he cannot take the drugs in even if he wants them. It is this addiction that may cause a drug addict to lose him or herself, it fuels crime, prostitution, organised crime and even terrorism. And these drugs and just one of the problems that I have with my new broken society.

For example we have that other horrid drug, its legal and I even drink some of the stuff myself, yup its good old alcohol. If one was to venture out along a busy street at night lined with pub’s and clubs then one is forced to watch as the ignorant of society beat each other senseless in alcohol fuelled duels. Apparently something like 10 000 people in the UK are killed every year as a result of alcohol, what a waste of human potential. I often wonder how much money we would save the state my banning alcohol and cigarettes (I do not advocate an all out ban). Might be in the best interest of the population but let’s face, it makes money through tax’s the politicians are just going to run with it to pay off their nice expenses bills. In our new broken society we can’t even trust our leaders.

Teenage pregnancy is another prime example showing how broken our society has become years ago a pregnant 14 year old would have been abnormal. Yet now we have exposed our young people to so much sexually provocative media if they are not having sex they are abnormal according to our new Brocken society. As a result of this, sex, it seems, has replaced the must have toy for our children and as a result some of them are having their own children when they are still children themselves, it’s almost fashionable to be a single underage mum. This is a viscous cycle that leads to them losing not only their innocence but their childhood much too young; a 14 year old shouldn’t be worrying about child support. Having a child should be the most wonderful experience of one’s life but how can a 14 year old be expected to appreciate this. The baby loses out from the moment of conception because the parents are too young and immature to support the child.

Issues that should have been resolved 40 years ago are still prevalent with in this new broken society, such as racism and homophobia. Words like “pakie” and “Chinkie” are thrown around without any regard for one’s fellow men. The worst example of this is people’s attitudes towards our European neighbours I am always hearing of hate crimes against eastern Europeans. We, as society should be helping each other fix the problems not fighting each other. People of a homosexual orientation should be tolerated not swore at and discriminated when they are showing affection to one another on a bus or in a park by some of the so called “yobs” or “neds”.

Gang culture is also big problem now in our inner cities, apparently there are now over 170 gangs in London alone mostly influenced by the American style of gang culture that is portrayed through films and music, for whom an ASBO is not a deterrence, it’s a status symbol. Shootings and stabbings are so regular in London now that they go unreported in the mainstream press. When one goes out at night the fear of being mugged or stabbed is very real.

Indeed this is a very brief overview on my views on how broken our society is there are more problems but my message would be the same. We should be endeavouring to fix these problems not fighting with each other. It is up to Society to fix these problems not the politicians, police, doctors or teachers everyone should be working together to condemn our abhorrent new society. It is not the responsibility of one group of people rather it is the responsibility of all people to fix our broken society.

I like this thread, it's very thoughtful.

I agree with everything you wrote actually.

One thing that aggravates me the most is racism. For some people it's just the norm these days. Some of the so called "jokes" people send by text message are disgraceful. They are not in the slightest bit funny and some sound like something from 1950s Mississippi.

[edit on 28/7/10 by Kram09]

It's indicative of the beast that is civilization to have these evils, no surprises there. Homelessness, crime, drug abuse, conditioned powerlessness, apathy... I mean we could make an endless list.

I salute you for doing the right thing.

I think, sadly, that society is so broken in this country (UK) that "us" as a society are being controlled by the thugs and we can do very little to touch them.

Police here are too worried about being sued to get involved, PSO and CSO's are next to useless and "vigilante" society who step in to do the right thing or protect loved ones and property more often than not find themselves in court.

I remember a story of a guy breaking into a factory by climbing onto the roof of the building, the roof collapsed and he hurt himself and got awarded £1,000,000 in compensation.

..or the poor doctor who revived a man by pumping his chest, accidently cracked his rib in the process but got sued for assault.

Someone stole an old car of mine, I was going to scrap it anyway... but I told the police, I also told them I didn't want it recovered as I was going to scrap it anyway, I just told them to prevent any neighbours from having their cars stolen. Long story short, the police recovered my car and charged me £500!!
People no longer report crimes because of things like this and the criminals know it and take full advantage.

Thankfully I can see green shoots with this coalition government that things are starting to turn a corner...fingers crossed!!

My father in law has been an opiate junky off and on his whole life. When I met with wife I would live through her pain and resent him because of the pain he caused her to relive and live in the present.

As I have grown older I have come to understand the reasons he has fallen prey. It is said that the years following a spiritual awakening/self-realization is a heavy period of depression.

You look around you and see the beauty of this world being destroyed for meaningless gains by a few bad apples. You try to scream for help but get ridiculed by the mob or outright ignored.

When no one pays attention to the horrors of this world you turn to pain killers or you end up having a psychotic break.

Accept, do not judge and love limitlessly. I'll continue trying to do that myself.

Peace

What you described can be summed up by the phrase divide et impera.

"Speak softly, but carry a big __________."

I know this thread was written a British perspective but i was wondering what our American cousins think of this and if you’s have similar problems.