Some time back, a family we know got burgled.
This is thankfully still reasonably rare in England (outside London anyway), but I was stunned at the reaction of the people robbed.
Instead of outrage and vowing vengeance (which seldom happens) as I would do, they crawled into their shells to wallow in a pit of self-pity and victimisation.
The burglars entered by the simple expedient of unbolting the garden gate and walking through the open backdoor. The eldest daughter was at home, so the house was unlocked.
This is the usual story of burglaries in Britain; why bother breaking windows when the homeowners are out? It’s far easier to barge in and threaten bodily harm if anyone accosts you.
In London robbers sometimes just knock on the door and wait for you to open up. As no law-abiding person in the country has a firearm – apart from some farmers with shotguns – intruders are in little danger.
Conversely, no crook dares breaking into a home in America if they know the owners are inside for the obvious reason that most Yanks have guns.
And before that contentious debate kicks off, I’m told that if you take away gangsters in the ’hoods’ and lone wolf sickos, America has pretty much the same gun crime statistics as Canada.
But back to our friends’ burglary.
A week afterwards the police found the perps. They were gypsies down the road, and most of the possessions were recovered.
However, the family decided that despite this ‘closure’ their daughter needed trauma counselling. Even though she had not seen the thieves, she had – horror – been in the house at the time.
Then the mother decided she also needed counselling.
The father had tears in his eyes while recounting this to us. The biggest trauma for him was looking at his desk and seeing his computer gone.
He too was considering counselling.
I shook my head in disbelief. Are we, as a society, that effete?
There is a huge difference between a caring society and an effete one. I am all for compassionate community codes and anyone who genuinely needs a hand should get one from the state. The key word is ‘genuine’.
Nanny state
But when you create a nanny state, victims become your clients. Not to mention your core voters. And that’s where much of the West is now.
Compare the family I have just described to the average South African. I would guess that the crime rate against South Africans is over 60 percent. In other words, at least six out of 10 people have been victims of crime, no matter how small. And 100 percent of South Africans know of someone affected by crime.
But do any of them consider counselling? Huh.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about rape, hijacking, brutal assaults or murder, where counselling is absolutely crucial in helping victims cope.
Instead, I’m talking about the equivalent of the Brit family mentioned above; victims of a rather mild crime as far as home invasions go. The biggest hurt is the intrusion of privacy, as insurance takes care of the rest.
That still is a very real ‘hurt’, but even so, I don’t think many South Africans would even remotely contemplate lying on the psycho-sofa pouring out their inner self to some headshrinker.
This is what I fear most about Europe. We are so soft that we do not realise that ‘out there’ it can get mean and nasty.
That is why I think much of the West is committing cultural suicide. We have the best trained and equipped soldiers.
We have the most advanced form of government and the most transparent democracies. We have top cops.
But all this adds to nought when we simply do not know the meaning of the phrase ‘man up’. (Sorry if that sounds sexist, particularly as Europe’s migrant crisis in countries like Sweden and Germany has graphically shown that women are the stronger species).
The reality is the meek do not inherit the earth. The righteous do.
And righteous anger against criminality is probably the best trauma counselling you’ll get.
