By Anissa Haddadi: Subscribe to Anissa's RSS feed
August 15, 2011 9:33 AM EDT
Just over a week after the first signs of violence emerged in London, Prime Minister David Cameron gave yet another speech about the riots, once again looking for the causes and explaining how the government will handle the aftermath.
Talking from his constituency, in Witney, and with graffiti in the background, the tone was set, morality needs to bring an end to an era of relativism.
When people hear politicians talk about morality, they think they have no right to do so, because "politicians can be flawed their marriages break down," Cameron said, insisting it is the actual unwillingness of politicians to speak about morality that "has made the problem worse" and created a culture of "moral neutrality".
In saying that politicians are often seen as flawed, Cameron is right, it is however perhaps more the fact that the "morality problem" is being discussed by MPs that have been affected by "expenses problems" that people might find problematic.
Do all politicians really know what is moral and what is not? And if yes, since when? Morality it seems, was not among the top priorities of many of them a few years ago.
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Morality is far from being an easy notion to define and quite often not as absolute as some people claim. After all didn't Socrates once write "A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true"?
"We know what's gone wrong: the question is, do we have the determination to put it right? Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?" Cameron says.
"Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences. Children without fathers. Schools without discipline. Reward without effort. Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control. Some of the worst aspects of human nature tolerated, indulged - sometimes even incentivised - by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally de-moralised."
The problem however with morality is the normative and not absolute sense, is that it usually helps dictate what is wrong or right while not leaving much room for discussion and dialogue.
The government it seems is now ready to regain the reigns of a country that has sunk in decadence with "the responsible majority of people in this country" who "are crying out for their government to act upon it."
The need for morality and moral values it seems now needs to be prioritised over the economic crisis in which so many people have lost their jobs and homes.
"Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger society goee hand in hand. This is what I came into politics to do" Cameron said and "mending the broken society is a priority for the government", he added.
"I can announce today that over the next few weeks, I and ministers from across the coalition government will review every aspect of our work to mend our broken society, on schools, welfare, families, parenting, addiction, communities, on the cultural, legal, bureaucratic problems in our society too," he added.
To deal with that, five main points emerged from Cameron's discourse.
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