Mike O’Connor: Life has become cheap, a callous disregard for others commonplace

OPINION: Why do people have children if they have no intention of bringing them up with the Christian values of yesteryear, asks Mike O’Connor.

How long before the stab-proof vest becomes the must-have fashion accessory of 2023?

The knife is now the weapon of choice for those with no regard for the rule of law or the property and lives of their fellow citizens with knives and the preparedness to use them one of the more frightening aspects of the past year.

It would be naive to think that the next 12 months will be any different. A cricket bat kept under the bed was once regarded as an effective weapon against housebreakers but no more.

You can now buy a stab vest online for $299.95 that is said to be “fully tested and certified in Australia” and features “polycarbonate stab-proof plates, one for front one for rear. The plates cover the vital organs front and back”.

Nice to know, though I imagine they’d be rather uncomfortable to wear to bed, the better to be prepared for a home invasion so the solution for those who can afford it could be the creation of fortified room within the home to which all inhabitants retire in the evening.

Tasmanian police officers with the latest stab-proof vest.

Anyone who has lived in Papua New Guinea, and particularly Port Moresby, will be familiar with this cosy domestic feature known as a panic or safe room.

Another murder? So what? The 24-hour news cycle grinds on, the only thing certain being that it will soon record another tragic death and then another.

Life has become cheap, a callous disregard for others now commonplace.

The offenders are often young so when does the spiral that sees teenagers and twenty-somethings charged with murder, attempted murder and a long list of serious offences involving assault and indifference to the sanctity of life begin?

It would be a fair bet that their home life was none too flash.

Did their parents instil in them the difference between right and wrong or didn’t they give a damn? What values were they taught?

Finish high school, get a job, pay your way, do unto others as you would have them do unto you?

Good parents sometimes have bad kids that sadly disappoint. A warm, supportive and loving home environment doesn’t guarantee that it will produce a model citizen, but it gives the child a more than sporting chance to achieve this.

A loving home environment doesn’t guarantee that it will produce a model citizen but it gives the child a more than sporting chance to achieve this. Picture: iStock

At what age, I wonder, were these children effectively abandoned by their parents?

The state is increasing the penalties that courts can impose, which is fine, though given the arrogance and flagrant disregard for civilised behaviour evident, you could wonder if they will make a difference, but if they save one innocent life then they are worth it.

The punishment should fit the crime and justice seen to be done.

But this doesn’t address the core problem, which is that while they are doing their time in prison, the next generation of youth offenders is being bred out in the suburbs by uncaring parents who on the evidence are unprepared to make the personal sacrifices sometimes necessary to put their child on the right track and do everything in their power to make sure they stay there.

Why do people have children if they have no intention of rearing them?

Perhaps we are now reaping the grim harvest that has been sown by a society that has in a large part abandoned Christian values.

It is decidedly unfashionable to be Christian with almost 40 per cent of people ticking “no religion” in the last census.

Public figures who espouse a Judeo-Christian faith are mocked and conservative values ridiculed.

A baseball or cricket bat kept under the bed was once regarded as an effective weapon against housebreakers, but no more.

Instant self-gratification is the new religion, “self” the all-important planet around which the world orbits.

Rearing children is demanding and requires much of the “self”, too much it would seem by the endless procession of youthful offenders charged with serious crime.

There’s not much point in shedding tears in the courtroom when sentence is passed on your child if you’ve paid little or no attention to their moral welfare for the past 10 years.

My father worked hard but was dogged by ill-health and my mother sometimes struggled to balance the family budget, but what was never lacking in our home was an abundance of love and support.

I struggle to see that the youths that are now facing the courts and being found guilty of offences that will ultimately destroy their own lives before they have had a chance to live them come from such an environment.