SheepdipBlade
Active Member
I think there's some truth in what you say. Certainly the two world wars shook ordinary people's faith in the established order.I agree about the golden age, but I think something changed after WW2, like the old order was gone, or at least eroded. Churchill's tories got a shock when they were rejected by the electorate, and it seemed that was when the "generation gap" started - the older generation wasn't automatically followed and respected any more.
Also I read somewhere that after every major war the crime rate in this country went up for a while before going back down - but this time it didn't go back down.
I think another key point (arguably more important) is the rise in wealth in western nations post war. In most working communities pre war there was no adolescence. Young people went straight from being children to becoming working adults (usually on leaving school at 14) Only with the 50s did there come enough disposal income for under 25s to allow them to access their own fashions in clothing and music - and of course, businesses leapt at a new market. Add to this old fashioned ideas like gang territories (Sheffield's worst period for gang crime was the inter war years - think Peaky Blinders) and you get Ted's cutting lumps out of each other with flick knives and the press whipping up a moral panic.
So I guess it's all part of how our communities have evolved. People are people, so it's usually just a new twist on an old theme. The tossing rings at Sky Edge became Ted's, then Mods, then Punks and now it's dickheads giving it limbs at the back of the Kop.