Georgia
I'm about to leave Atlanta Georgia for the long trip back to Belfast (via Newark). I flew in on Wednesday evening to attend a very interesting conference on Democracy and Extremism, populated mostly by political scientists. It was all very interesting and I learned an enormous amount. I gave a paper on the Parades Commission (generally on my predelictions for thinking of conflict resolution in Northern Ireland in a regulatory frame) and was part of the opening round-table on defining extremism (my contributions being to say that I'm not convinced that there are that many extremists in Ireland and a rather long ramble on the possibilities and profound difficulties involved in distinguishing between actions in conflicts and actions in relatively stable democracies).1
Anyway, this morning was interesting. I wandered with a few fellow participants to the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. I have to say that, although the exhibits were interesting and MLK's house itself was worth seeing, a lot of the monument had a rather run-down feel to it. And while one end of Sweet Auburn was lovely, the downtown end was very poor indeed.
Atlanta seems to be the quintessential white flight city and while everyone is generally friendly, there is a vaguely menacing air in the downtown area once business close for the day. The local bums are of course black but the really stark thing about them is that they seem to be predominantly and very obviously mentally ill. That is, rather than coming across as having fallen prey to addiction, the homeless people I've encountered seem literally to be severe schizophrenics. I've no idea if the Irish and British end of Europe (if I can call Ireland and end of Europe any more) is any better in their treatment of the insane but this is really stark. Does anyone know if I'm just mis-identifying something here or is there evidence of a greater link between mental illness and destitution in American than in, say, the UK?
1 If you're bothered and you want to read either my IPS article or the conference paper (once I've updated in the wake of a very interesting respondent's remarks) just drop me an email.
Indeed; a fairly significant
Indeed; a fairly significant number of the homeless in many American cities are mentally ill, (Vietnam) war veterans or both. The reality of their situation stands in sharp contrast to the official rhetoric about the pride in Americans in uniform, patriotism and so on...
Thanks Stefan. The US is not
Thanks Stefan. The US is not entirely alone in terms of veterans: I have heard that a significant number of London's homeless are ex-army. A significant number are Irish as well. Which suggests that being in a relatively marginal group (black in the USA or an Irish person from the 1950s cohort in the UK) has to be an unsurprising contributor. But, my impression is that addiction and especially alcoholism is the major driver in the UK and Ireland, explicit mental illness is more prevalent in the States (and not just in Atlanta).
Of course, this is entirely impressionistic. It's not like the mentally ill are entirely well done by in Europe's American-style economies and it's not like the US is devoid of aloholics and addicts.
Post new comment