From my years as a living, breathing, sentient human being, I have noticed how human behavior works. We all have that knowledge - especially people who have lived a few years and have experienced a few things. Parents, managers, leaders of all types must surely know how to inspire the best behavior and intent from people. Incentives for eliciting desired behavior work. So do the unintended bad consequences of the same incentives, so getting it right is critical. Rather than responding to large, out of control parties (is 5 really a threatening number?), what is the best way to PREVENT bad things from happening in the first place?
I do not believe the Unruly Gatherings Ordinance will do a thing to prevent large parties from happening, nor prevent all the bad things that happen at the parties. The party will just move on to the next house, or the kids (or whoever) will find other ways to skirt the law. What should we do - invent ever more ways to close loopholes, tightening our grip on individual behavior so that in the end, someone else calls the shots about what is good and bad? Even if it is "for the common good," or "for the kids," let's get serious about what we are doing to ourselves in our quest to avoid all the nastiness of life. Tyranny is not the answer.
I invite readers to comment and give your best way to PREVENT "Unruly Gatherings."
Big fines ($1000 first offense) for the owners/renters of homes who allow them to happen!
ReplyDeleteI was actually being facetious above. This trend to "normalize" society is penetrating more of our lives daily. It appears the "government" in "looking out for us" will criminalize all sorts of behavior and create "zero tolerance" policies for just about anything. Kids get suspended or worse from school for making a gun with their fingers. Why wouldn't the kids do that when our media and games are filled with violence with guns every day?
ReplyDeleteHere in the "village" of Lake Oswego our answer (on call from higher authorities) is to create more laws. What is wrong with the existing laws? Do they cover the topic adequately?
The answer is not more laws (we have too many already and people do not know what the law is in many cases). Unruly teen parties are the parents fault aren't they? Can we legislating good parenting (if we can please start with teen pregnancy, not unruly parties)? No, we cannot legislate or zero tolerance any behavior.
Do we want a society of "zombies" walking around who offend no one or ever do anything unacceptable? It seems that is where we might be headed.