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I managed to catch a story on the late news a few nights ago about a carful of hoons that intentionally ran down a woman's dog and then shouted at her to "run bitch" and this prompted me to take a look at animal abuse among Generation Y.
So, animal cruelty is icky and generally unpleasant- agreed. It however does not stop there because I'm sure you've all heard that cruelty to animals if one of the indicators that someone is likely to grow up to be a murderer. Well if you hadn't heard that before you've heard it now. If you're curious as to what the other indicators are, I've found some of them for you*;
-being physically abused as a child
-being sexually abused as a child
-witnessing domestic violence
-coming from a socioeconomically disadvantaged family
-being male
-being an arsonist
-receiving poor/inadequate education
The presence of one or even all of these factors does not mean a person will automatically turn into a killer, it simply means there is a greater chance of that happening. However, I am not here to discuss taking human lives, I am here to talk about young people and harmed animals, so let's keep going.
As with all crimes, the question on everyone’s lips is why, and this this report (at the bottom of page 5) lists some of the reasons given when juvenile offenders where interviewed.
-To control an animal
-To retaliate against an animal
-Out of prejudice for a species/breed
-To express aggression through an animal (e.g. cruelty to create an aggressive guard dog)
-To shock people from amusement
-To retaliate against other people (i.e. to hurt other's animals for revenge)
Two responses that I found to be missing from this list are to gain pleasure from watching the animal suffer and curiosity as in, "if I twist its leg this way, what sound will the animal make?" It has been my experience that these two are the most common reasons for hurting an animal, so either the cases I've come across are rare, or the interviewees lied because they thought the truth would get them into more trouble.
The same report (bottom of page 7) also shows a direct correlation between corporal punishment and animal cruelty and animal cruelty and the acceptance of corporal punishment and domestic violence.
In other words, if a person was hit as a form of discipline in childhood, they are more likely to abuse animals and vice versa. If they abuse animals in their youth they are more like to think it is acceptable to spank a child as a form of punishment and think it is okay for a man to strike a woman.
All of this should really raise some eye brows in the direction of our parents because if you accept that there is no beast without cruelty, it seems like the disciplinarians in our family planted the seeds of antisocial behaviour long ago. Furthermore, with this in mind, how should we go on to raise generation Z and all the generations that follow? Well I'm not having children so that's that problem sorted.
I am sure that by now we've all heard of, if not indeed seen, the photos of teen star Miley Cyrus where she's showing off her belly and her bra. I'd post some of them, but I think there are enough copies of them floating around in cyber space as it is. Well surprise surprise, Ms Cyrus has come out and apologised Saying she was "embarrassed" and that "her family and her faith will guide her through her life's journey."
Um, pardon me, but what does her faith have to do with her taking some typical teen photos? Big deal, there's a shot of her in a bathing suit and a few with her ex-boyfriend where she's lying on his lap- stop press! No one's ever posed like that and put the photos up on myspace before.
Your average Gen Yer poses like that, I'm sorry but it's true. We mess around, we take photos, we laugh about it, so why is this a 'scandal?' Why are fellow Gen Yers reading tabloid magazines and making comments about Miley or that Vanessa girl from High School Musical? Hypocrites.
And why is Miley embarrassed? Did she or did she not pose for these photos? And don't tell me she's 15 she doesn’t understand what she's doing. If you can update your myspace profile, you understand the concept of taking photos and letting them be published.
I honestly don't see the scandal here, I fail to see why people Miley's age a judging her and I don't see why she's backtracking on something that's quite commonplace. What's the point people, what's the point? Do you honestly need something to gossip about so badly you’ve taken a girl’s typical teen photos and turned them into press fodder? Go plant a tree or something.
Every few months I like to compile some information on what defines Generation Y and why certain criteria is used or discarded when putting together a definition. You see the debate of whether the generations actually exist or not rages ever on and I like to keep up with it all so I know who I'm meant to be reporting on.
Until 3 seconds ago, I maintained that Gen Y was persons born between 1976 and 1990. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has other ideas. If you believe them, the people I should be keeping tabs on came into this world between 1982 and 2000. Don't look too closely at those numbers or you'll see that with such a discrepancy, someone’s clearly off the mark by miles.
My future employers and I however, do agree that terrorism, the environment and the internet are responsible for defining Gen Y. For a comprehensive look at what the ABS thinks Generation Y is click here.
Others however, are hell-bent on understanding my peers and I so that they can do the unthinkable- market to us. *shivers* The devil is indeed in the details. Lucifer must work long and hard to come up with ever new and creative ways to make us think there is a void in our lives that can only be filled with stuff. Look, I've found a transcript of the Devil's plans to corrupt and exploit us. Here we're likened to Gen X. We're described as growing up too soon and as being apathetic through and through. Well good luck marketing to us- I hope our lack of concern drives you to madness long before you find a way to make me feel I need to buy something in order to feel good about myself. Return to the pit from whence you came.
I think I shall leave it there for this session, you know, give you some time to digest the information and draw your own conclusions. I'm off to finish an assignment.
In my attempt to be a 'serious' writer, i.e. there was nothing else on TV at the time, I watched me an episode of 60 Minutes last night.
The fist story, click to view, was about teen pregnancy. It talked about how, what was coming next and how were the parents-to-be fitting this into their young lives
[ Click here to read more ]
So apparently girls are now fighting like boys and it's the media's fault. I'm not going to turn this into a rant about sexism but God knows I'd like to. I'm here to put forth the case that what we watch is to blame for a rise in teen girl violence. Seriously, Google it- I did.
There’s this perfectly plausible reason floating around too, it goes something like
[ Click here to read more ]
Seeing as I crushed your hope and made you feel like an insignificant speck on the face of the planet with my last post, I think it's only fitting that I return and build you up once more. What am I on about? I'm here to tell you about all the things that we young people marvel at and find joy in. I'm going to try to make you feel better.
Accomplishments and a sense of achievement
[ Click here to read more ]
I've got this theory that there are universal factors that affect the mood of a generation. Have I researched this theory? No, but that's beside the point- I needed a topic to post about and I picked this one so kick back and relax while I try to get this theory to pass as plausible.
Now when I say 'generation', I understand there are cultural differences and I've decided to factor these into my arguments by completely ignoring them. Is that a contradiction? Probably. I figure I'll throw an idea out there, if you can make it apply to Generation Y of a certain country, then you can take this entry to be referring to them. If you can't make it apply to a certain group of Gen Y-ers, ignore them and move on. Wouldn't I make the perfect research scientist
[ Click here to read more ]
I swear to you, it's purely coincidental that so many of my blogs have been about Russia, I just seem to find topics to report on in the land of the Great Bear with greater ease than in other places. So now that I've cleared that possible bias up, let's move along to the topic of Russia's young designers and the spotlight that'll be on them commencing from the 30th of March (i.e. today).
As always when reporting on Russia, I'd like to give you a link to Russia Today's presentation of the story in text form. click.. Once the page opens, you can select to watch the video if you don't wish to read the 2 paragraph summary of the story
[ Click here to read more ]
I'm really sorry I haven't bee posting nearly as often as I should, I'll try to work on that.
BUT! Sitting here in my state of insomnia pondering what topics I can butcher and present to you in an attempt to make a living out of blogging... I hit a wall. I had nothing. I resigned myself to paying attention to the song that was playing and then I hit something else-an idea. Today's entry shall be about the role music plays in the lives of Generation Y
[ Click here to read more ]
You see them in the shopping centres turning ancient rituals into consumer goods for a niche market. They offer a glimpse into their world with that modern day feature, the festival. We know people that turn to it when all else fails and, out of curiosity, we may have done so ourselves. I am, or course, referring to the supernatural. Some see it as a bit of fun- even as they step in for a tarot reading, and others still think it is the answer to a better life. So what does the Average Joe think of all this hocus pocus and why is it that they think that way? Well fear not, ladies and gentlemen, because I set off to find out.
Unsurprisingly, I found females to be more susceptible to the belief that there's more to life than meets the eye. I suspect this is due to social conditioning, I mean girls are notorious for talking through problems and for them it's okay to cry in public so it might be easier for them to tolerate an abstract concept like the paranormal. Our male counterparts on the other hand, are more restricted socially* in terms of expressing feelings and pondering life's big questions so all this mystical hoo-huh probably gets passed over by the majority without so much as a second glance
[ Click here to read more ]
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102 Posts dating from August 2007
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