Garth George: Western world chaos a consequence of collapse in values

Rampant greed and selfishness at both ends of society are leading us down a destructive path. I am looking - through newspapers, television and the internet - at a world in such turmoil that it seems to be sliding inexorably into chaos.

In England the shooting of a black man, an alleged drug dealer, triggers widespread rioting, arson and looting in several cities and catches police forces flat-footed. Millions of pounds' worth of property is stolen or goes up in flames, arrests are made in the hundreds, and a nation is left reeling.

In Greece, Spain and other parts of Europe, there have been vicious street protests as austerity measures inflicted by debt-ridden Governments facing bankruptcy begin to bite. And in Norway a lunatic explodes a bomb outside a public building then sets about fatally shooting scores of children. In the United States, the world's biggest economy is in a shambles, with high unemployment, industries disappearing offshore, rampant poverty, tumbling property prices, and a government debt burden rocketing up into incomprehensible figures while far-right rednecks rattle on about small government and less tax.

Throughout the Middle East despots ruling countries such as Egypt, Libya and Syria savagely try to put down rebellion as increasingly desperate disenfranchised citizens take the law into their own hands. Then there's the chronic weeping sore of Israel and Palestine.

Throughout Africa millions are starving to death while avaricious dictators fight over and carve up insignificant pieces of land and form new countries which haven't a snowball's show in hell of ever supporting themselves. And some of them deliberately do their best to stymie Western relief efforts.

In Australia right now convoys of vehicles, from road trains to motorcycles, are rolling thousands of kilometres down highways towards Canberra to protest at government policies, what Greg Ansley describes as "a display of rural anger at policies ranging from the carbon tax and meddling with live animal exports to asylum seekers, food imports, bungled federal programmes and gay marriage". Just what will happen when the convoys merge and ride into Canberra on Monday remains to be seen.

And here in little old New Zealand, down at the bottom of the world, normally quiescent citizens are moved to protest at, and boycott, an international conglomerate which charges exorbitant prices for an All Blacks jersey; an inquiry is under way to try to find answers to child abuse and poverty; welfare benefits are again under review; public discontent at milk prices has forced the Government to institute an inquiry; and the profiteering of the supermarket duopoly is generating increasing anger as food prices continue to rise.

So, setting aside Africa and the Middle East, what is the Western world coming to? How come, after more than a century of capitalism, our world is in such a parlous state? Who and what is to blame for this state of affairs? It would take several pages of this newspaper to answer those questions in full, so I am indebted to British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has put it so succinctly: "a slow-motion moral collapse" of British society over the past few generations. And the same can be said of European, American and Australasian society.

British Opposition leader Ed Milibrand, too, nailed it concisely when he suggested it is not just the bottom of society that is to blame, but examples set by those with money and power, a breakdown in standards that has seen "greed, selfishness and immorality" become the norm. That, too, applies to the rest of the capitalist world.

Said Mr Cameron: "Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face. We must fight back against the attitudes that have brought parts of our society to this shocking state: 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 the state and its agencies."

So there you have it. Those indeed are the things that have crippled and will ultimately destroy society as we know it and not just in Britain but in all of Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

It is hugely significant every one of Mr Cameron's social problems is essentially a moral issue, the consequences of the collapse of traditional Judeo-Christian values. It is this which has to be addressed. The trouble is we cannot rely on politicians or big business - the joint rulers of the Western world - to deal with them. Perhaps it is too late.

For, as the prophet Hosea quotes God as saying in the Bible: "The people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law ... They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up."

- garth.george@hotmail.com