Posted on 04/26/2005 3:25:21 PM PDT by quidnunc
All Oiks Now: The Unnoticed Surrender of Middle England.
by Digby Anderson
Social Affairs Unit. 92 pages. $22.50.
All Oiks Now: The Unnoticed Surrender of Middle England, by Digby Anderson of the Social Affairs Unit, a London think tank, is little bigger than a pamphlet — 92 pages, including a number of full-page cartoons. It is a pamphlet, too, in its function and style. The thing begs to be handed out on street corners. It is no accident that a British critic tarred Anderson as a “Jeremiah.” All Oiks is a tirade, good- natured but also deadly serious, against unwitting facilitators of social and cultural decline.
Discussing the everyday behavior of Englishmen in pubs, supermarkets, shopping malls, health clubs, and so on, Anderson marks and warns against a trend away from what he views as peculiarly English virtues and toward brutishness. He fears that England is capitulating to the “oiks.” Yet Digby’s Grand Remonstrance is not just for the Brits. All that he describes of manners and attitudes in his country is applicable to our own. For Americans the book may be a warning shot: What is happening Over There could happen here, too.
What is an oik? Anderson provides a glossary, presumably for his stateside audience. An oik is “a cad, an ignorant, inferior person (colloquial), a chap, bloke (slightly derogatory)” (Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary). Only slightly derogatory? The word may come from “hoik, to spit” (Dictionary of Slang); it may refer to “one who pronounces ‘i’ as ‘oi’” (Online Dictionary of Playground Slang). It is certainly nothing good: Oink springs to mind.
Anderson clearly wishes to be thought a little batty, if only because it makes his writing more amusing. His pronouncements seem to be made ex cathedra from the old curmudgeon’s rocking chair — we can picture him brandishing a cane at this horrible spectacle, oik “culture.” British reviewers skeptical of Anderson’s thesis have attacked his disapproving tone and stylistic quirks. They have also avoided engagement with the argument they underscore. That critical response, though understandable, is every bit as distressing as the argument itself.
-snip-
In one video clip, labelled Bitch Slap, a youth approaches a woman at a bus stop and punches her in the face. In another, Knockout Punch, a group of boys wearing uniforms are shown leading another boy across an unidentified school playground before flooring him with a single blow to the head.
In a third, Bank Job, a teenager is seen assaulting a hole-in-the-wall customer while another youth grabs the money he has just withdrawn from the cash machine.
Welcome to the disturbing world of the "happy slappers" — a youth craze in which groups of teenagers armed with camera phones slap or mug unsuspecting children or passersby while capturing the attacks on 3g technology.
According to police and anti-bullying organisations, the fad, which began as a craze on the UK garage music scene before catching on in school playgrounds across the capital last autumn, is now a nationwide phenomenon.
And as the craze has spread from London to the home counties to the north of England, so the attacks have become more menacing, with increasing numbers of violent assaults and adult victims.
In London, British Transport police have investigated 200 happy slapping incidents in the past six months, with eight people charged with attacks at south London stations and bus stops in January alone.
The Metropolitan police have no overall figures but recorded a number of attacks in London boroughs earlier this year.
Following a spate of random attacks last December on pupils at Godolphin and Latymer girls' school in Hammersmith, west London, police posted extra officers in the area as a deterrent.
But as police have become more vigilant, so the gangs have become more sophisticated, seeking victims in parks or public areas where their crimes are unlikely to be spotted by the authorities or captured on CCTV.
-snip-
(Mark Honigsbaum in The Guardian, April 26, 2005)
To Read This Article Click Here
Too bad no one is packin' heat over there.....
Predicted decades ago by Stanley Kubrick in "A Clockwork Orange."
Is he bragging about or lamenting this new craze?
What the heck is an "ant-bullying" organisation? Sounds like something out of Monty Python.
If anybody tries any of that "happy slapping" crap on me next time I'm over there, they're going to be very surprised. The delicate-looking, well-dressed American lady fights dirty. If I can push a 1200-pound horse around, I can handle a teenage yob.
'Happy Slapping'
Let's make that 'Video'd Assault.'
The problem is in Britain a person meeting force with force is apt to be charged by the police and sued by the perp.
You would have to see me to understand. No one would ever believe I could raise much more than a lace handkerchief, much less a fist.
Life in a country without a Second Amendment.
I can't hear "Singing In The Rain: without thinking of it.
Quido, I hope you are well. I am delighted to be able to refute you from personal experience. Just last week I was targeted by this very craze at the ATM.
Suffice to say that the spiteful teenage dogboy will be spending more time in the dentist's chair than he anticipated over the next few months and the boys in blue were most solicitous as to my welfare.
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