In 1971, a film came out that shocked audiences around the world. Stanley KubrickAn American film director, producer, screenwriter and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Kubrick's movies include The Killing, Spartacus, Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket.'s A Clockwork Orange depicted a Britain where rovingConstantly wandering from one place to another. gangs of youths brutalisedTo treat someone in a needlessly violent and brutal way. innocent people for fun.

The film was banned in several countries, and pulled from cinemas in the UK after the media reported a number of young people copying the crimes.

But today, many people think they are living in a world not too far from A Clockwork Orange. The number of people reporting antisocial behaviour rose by 30% between 2015 and 2020. Some 37% of adults have experienced or seen antisocial behaviour in their community in the last year.¹

Worries that we are getting less kind go back a long way. In 1790, thinker Edmund BurkeIrish statesman, economist and philosopher. Often regarded as the founder of modern British conservatism. warned that the French RevolutionThe overthrow (and subsequent execution) of France's king and aristocratic government in 1789. The revolution became infamous and influential worldwide. was making people nasty and cruel, and feared this would spread to the rest of Europe.

In the 19th Century, short horror stories known as "penny dreadfuls" became extremely popular. Many of these stories, like Sweeney ToddA famous character and the protagonist of the penny dreadful serial The String of Pearls. Todd murders his customers and gives them to his associate, who bakes them into meat pies., focused on the exploits of vicious murderers. Soon people began to blame them for driving young people to commit crimes.

And in fact, author Anthony Burgess wrote the novel A Clockwork Orange, on which the film was based partly in response to fears of a rise in juvenile delinquencyWhen a young person habitually commits criminal acts..

Usually, the response of politicians has been to promise to restore law and order. The ConservativesA traditionally right-wing or centre right political party in the UK. Members are sometimes called Tories. have banned laughing gasNitrous oxide; a powerful painkiller which is also used as a recreational drug. and increased police powers. LabourBritain's main left-of-centre political party. wants to recruit 13,000 more police officers.

But some feel there is no policing solution to a spiritual problem. One of them is US writer David Brooks, who believes we need a new kind of moral education to make us better people.

In the old days, he argues, schoolchildren were taught that right and wrong were facts of the universe, and they owed certain moral duties to other people.

But in the 20th Century all this changed. Teachers began to tell them living a good life was really a question of being true to oneself. People were encouraged to explore their inner feelings rather than think about their duties to society.

The result, he claims, is that people no longer think they owe anything to each other, even basic kindness.

Brooks says bringing back moral education could encourage people to be nicer to each other. But some think this ignores the real problem.

They point out that since 2011, youth services have been cut by 69%, resulting in the closure of 750 youth centres.² These are places where young people at a loose end would once have gathered to socialise and entertain themselves.

And as they get older, they argue, the young have little to look forward to. The millennialA person born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. generation is the first in recent history to be poorer than their parents. Locked out of the housing market and coming of age in a recessionA period of economic decline. A recession occurs when a country's Gross Domestic Product falls for six months in a row. , things are hardly likely to be better for Gen ZShort for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s..

With nowhere to go, few prospects, and little sense that any politicians speak for them, it is unsurprising that many young people are taking out their frustration on others.

Yes: Little by little, we have found ourselves in a moral vacuum, where no-one has a strong sense of right and wrong. People need to be taught their duties to others if we are to have a harmonious society again.

No: The problem is not that we do not know right from wrong. It is that we live in societies that are breaking down because of neglect and underfunding. People's behaviour corresponds to how they are treated.

Or... Neither moral education nor more youth centres will be enough in itself. Society has become much too atomised. We need to do something to restore people's sense of community.