Is it our collective failure as a society that violent gangs exist?

[Stevendsmith]

I tend to think the answer is yes.

I’m so damn sick of hearing about shootings and other crimes perpetuated by gangs.

I’m so sick of hearing foul-mouthed, racist, misogynistic rants (usually into cell phones) from gang members or gang-ish idiots in public places – like my local supermarket.

[villager]

1. deranged "grown ups" have created a generation (or more)

...of deranged teenagers. Especially teenage boys.

The upper class ones will channel their rage into GOP politics, twisted power-sex, and illegal wars.

The lower class ones will act out violently on the streets.

[msongs]

2. no. nt

[SayWhatYo]

3. no, it's Canada's fault.

:P

[stillcool]

4. what goes in...

is what comes out. We are all teachers and students...we teach what we learn....violence, hatred, bigotry, false-pride, shame, guilt...all that good stuff.

[Trillo]

5. Interesting.

At the markets I shop at, there are almost zero people using cell phones, but that's not what I find curious. (I only go grocery shopping about once a month). Perhaps you should shop elsewhere?

You are asserting that people's inner friendship life is being shared with you by the proliferation of cell phone use in public coupled with your difficulty in tuning one side of the conversation out. Perhaps this is being used by some citizens to spread their beliefs to the greater population, without a direct confrontation. I would presume this tactic has to do, in part, with the depersonalization that exists our modern society. It could simply be poor manners, or a deliberate I don't care what you think.

This is kind of like a neighbor who has a nasty, mean dog, and does nothing to stop it from frothing and barking and lunging at the fence when the neighbor is in their yard, and the dog's owner routinely taking no action to stop it when they see it. In this case, the neighbor's displaced aggression is performed by the dog.

[Karenina]

6. And how 'bout them Boardroom Boy$, eh?

MUCH. LARGER. SCALE.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Yeah.

Gangs are the result of the decline of working class jobs, and failed social services, such as police.

[smirkymonkey]

9. What about the upper class gangs?

Like the Bush Administration, Bohemian Grove, Halliburton, and generally most of the Executive Staff of large Global Corporations?

[Annces]

8. Our society does not function as a whole

It is basically capitalistic. Europeans stole the land from the Native Americans. Black people were brought over as slaves. And then there were waves of immigrants. We are still in the shadow of those events.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Looked at in terms of family dynamics, America is an extremely disfunctional family

with far too many secrets that no one is supposed to talk about and both open and covert abuse perpetrated against the more vulnerable members.

The gangs are the equivalent of the child in a troubled family who "acts out."

[joe_sixpack]

11. I don't know if anyone has noticed...

but the "thug" lifestyle is marketed widely and quite fashionable these days. The obvious and easy answer might be to assume it's only the poor or unemployed who are attracted to gangs, but that was before big money could be made off of the trappings. Graffiti and other moronic signs of wasted youth are showing up in my middle class neighborhood more often this year because the young punks who were 8 or 9 years old 4 or 5 years ago when I moved in, are hitting that IPOD, too much idle time on my hands,teenage phase. At one time the specter of sagging pants down to your knees is confined to prisoners in jail who aren't allowed to have belts. Next thing you know it's plastered on a billboard in a Calvin Klein ad. Sometimes I wish that parents would wake up and focus and then I feel sorry for them because I realize they just can't cope with understanding this digital, media age and what kids are facing.