Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Curfews & Zits

Young people in various Western countries are up in arms about curfews, again.

In the US, young people may have arms, for other countries this is a harmless figure of speech.

Like zits, bell-bottom jeans and curfews  pop up in the public debate as a means to curb some perceived evil related to young people.

Most countries have reasonable limits on young people in places where alcohol is served, we are not talking about these laws and ordinances.

The curfews that keep coming back like zits are the other curfews, those that prohibit gathering in public for one reason only: because we as a society have failed our young.

In Germany, the federal minister for family affairs has just floated a curfew again.

In the United States, the city of Oakland, California, is mulling one.

And the Swiss, in the wisdom engendered by only by narrow alpine gorges, are having a go, too.

The German proposal is meeting fierce opposition, notably by the youth organizations of even the conservative political parties. This makes sense, after all, you should protest if you get to vote in some elections at age 16 and then some fossilized 35 year old proposes to tie you to your parents after 8 PM.

In the US, there are still a few minority youth out there who have not been criminalized, so well-meant curfews are just the ticket.

Such curfews remind us of speed limits and parking regulations. Easy, arbitrary, great for making quotas.  

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