An article in the Guardian ....
Young people take their tone from what they observe and experience around them, so it is worth briefly identifying the sort of behaviours which lead to their disaffection. They are daily confronted with the greed, corruption and social illiteracy of a feral uberclass which authorises a raunch culture driven by celebrity, whose mantra is best summed up in the ubiquitous assurance that "you're worth it". From Prime Minister's Question Time to the proliferation of Xbox games, they are made witness to the success of violence, bullying and confrontation. The sporting arena offers the triumphalism of testosterone overload, reinforced by the misogynistic braying from lad-mags. The merchant community have encouraged them to believe that it is right to "want it all and want it now". Essentially, today's young people are offered a contaminating iconography, increasingly in their face, whose misbehaviours they understandably mimic.
However the core to the whole issue is the phenomenon of social deficit. In a toxic alliance between politics and the market place, we have all been transformed from citizens with mutual needs into consumers with competing appetites. No amount of 'outward bounding' is going to cure this sickness.