Andi wrote:
> It's really unfair to blame
> the problem of violence in young males so largely on hormones.
My last post was somewhat hastily written, and there were some things I
didn't spell out. I actually don't think we disagree too much on this. My
view is really that there is a biological/hormonal surge in teenagers (male
and female) but that it is the social context in which this happens that is
the root cause of the problems. I am very happy to concede that a lot of the
problems are a DQ reaction to a very low Q environment (inchoate and
ill-expressed, but valid nonetheless) - my point is really that the force
driving the DQ reaction is largely hormonal.
> Teenagers who look like drug users, who look like gangsters, who
> look like anything can and will be pulled off the street and into police
> departments. I've seen it done. They're almost always released
> immediately, because they've done nothing wrong.
This is actually the precise point that I was trying to support - in these
sorts of cases the police (ie the state) shouldn't be getting involved, it
just makes things worse. If there were 'elders' - principally mature males -
who could mentor/encourage/act as points of discipline and respect, then
they could be the people who would know if there was actually a problem case
arising, and nine times out of ten make an intervention that brought a good
outcome on all sides. Getting the police involved is surely a last resort.
> You've misdiagnosed the
> problem in suggesting that it's hormonal, and have suggested a solution
that
> can only make the problem worse.
>
As I said, my early post was written in haste (I can't actually believe I've
had a chance to write so much in the last twenty-four hours; it won't last)
and I don't think there's much between us. Principally, what I was referring
to as social controls are things which are much more local and personally
based than anything that might be official or state sponsored. Of course,
the real challenge is to structure the social controls so that postive
criticisms (ie intellectual level ones) aren't squashed in the way that
biological ones are. But that's another thread.
Sam
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