Dying To Live It Up

What exactly is it about young people who seem to be able to find nothing better to do with themselves than search for purported glamour and fun in places that promise the suspense of whether they'll come out of an evening of drink and 'entertainment' and good fellowship with their skins intact.

Increasingly, large gatherings of young people, from sports events to mass popular entertainment, to the local bar scene and the nightclubs and dance clubs with the reputations of being the in-place to be and be seen - having fun - are proving to be inimical to the health of the attendees.

The crimes associated with illegal drugs - claimed for recreation use, in a truly misunderstood and twisted version of recreation and chemicals - brings little street hoodlums out to events, and more advanced criminals, to swagger into the field of entertainment, throwing their weight around, demonstrating in no uncertain manner that they feel entitled to settle scores, large and small, anywhere they wish.

As evidenced in latter years, in the downtown streets of Toronto, in broad daylight, people simply going about their business in the vicinity of bars and lounges can take their lives in their hands by inattention to what's happening around them. Some people are beginning to think twice now, before heading out to a favourite venue if it means passing by hang-outs known to spell trouble.

But yet, in places of adult entertainment, dance lounges, nightclubs, bars in Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, young people will go out for an evening of fun and companionship with their friends. Owners of these establishments have had to impose certain levels of security because of past and ongoing incidents of violence.

Innocent bystanders get killed and others wounded when firearms are discharged, for whatever reason; cross-fire or deliberate terror-inducing attacks.

There was a time when young people fuelled on alcohol and masculine bravado would face off and tussle physically with one another. That's no longer enough to prove how macho some men are. Their street gang credo demands that they pack along hand guns to prove just how up to the times they are. And having fun on a night out is inclusive of selling drugs.

Nightclubs and bars are earning labels of notoreity, in some instances sufficient to ensure that more prudent young people stay away, and acting as a draw to those young people who need the flirtation with danger to make them feel as though they're not missing anything important. Little misunderstandings flare up and people become so incensed under the influence of alcohol that they react violently and often mortally.

It's not just guns, but knives come in handy too, to demonstrate aptly the deadly mix of hormones excited by alcohol consumption and a public arena where one party is surrounded by friends as is another, with each side in a dispute being encouraged to bring the argument to a head. Snuffing out a life isn't something that can be put right by post-event, sober regret.

Question is, why aren't young people in society actively looking for satisfaction in other, meaningful ways, other than to meet and greet and challenge one another to disputes and aggravated assaults? It isn't just the uneducated among the young, but those young people who are able to avail themselves of higher education who succumb to the allure of these assemblies.

Because we have so much at our disposal in a wealthy society are we breeding young people simply bored with it all, with insufficient intellectual and social challenges to lead them to value life?