The sudden transformations in societies – email, cell phones – are often the result of an equipment revolution, and we spot them quickly; the slower transformations occur so slowly that we don’t even notice the shift until some sudden circumstance makes us aware. Growing up in Guyana, for instance, it was acceptable that adults, even the ones strange to you, were perfectly in order correcting wayward behaviour in young people, whatever the circumstance. Indeed, if the adult chiding you was known to your circle that person would actually be thanked by your family for the intervention. Move on in time 20 years or so; I’m living in Toronto, walking through the shopping centre in my neighbourhood and I come upon a small crowd gathered around some incident.
As I get closer I see the focus is on two youngsters in a fight. The older and bigger boy is raining punches on his younger opponent pinned to the ground. As I get to the scene, an adult steps out of the crowd clearly intending to halt the one-sided fight, but as he approaches, the bigger boy looks up, stops punching and says, “If you touch me
