The sordid story of Vincent, whose parents ‘never say he’s good enough’, and the subsequent grooming by a middle-aged couple, is not merely another tabloid tragedy. It is a case study in the collapse of familial authority and the perverse consequences of a cultural obsession with self-esteem. Vincent’s parents are emblematic of a generation that has confused discipline with cruelty, and standards with oppression.
In their relentless pursuit of affirming their son, they created a vacuum where unconditional validation was the only currency. The groomers, with their pernicious offers of ‘love’ and ‘understanding’, simply filled that vacuum with interest. This is the price we pay for abandoning the Victorian conviction that character is forged through trial, not coddled into fragility.
