Come back Joe and Jane Public!
Quick association of ideas.
Mark Steyn likes to point out that the passengers of United 93 had to overcome years of passivity training to do what was needed. They had to break all the rules laid down by the authorities.
Andrew Anthony sees that when your everyday Joe and Jane Public no longer have the cultural authority to impose good behaviour in public, when it is all left to the police, that is just to leave the streets in the hands of the most violent.
Modern terrorism is completely de-centralised and adapts fast. Government bureaucracies cannot manage that. Joe and Jane Public can, which, in the end, may make all the difference.
2 comments:
Great idea!
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm18.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,361031,00.html
Good point, Wodge, but the same point can, and has been, made about every source of authority and every institution. This is what Anthony was saying.
It is easy to find failings, but only for those insisting on perfection do those failings invalidate the 'system'. We've done all that; we've gone too far.
But please, do something creative. Suggest something that works (as opposed to something that would work if only the world was put right.
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