The Times Editorial: The actions of the ANC Youth League and its supporters outside Luthuli House on Tuesday are illustrative of a far greater problem than civil disobedience.

When children and young people go on the rampage with scant regard for property and the safety of others, it speaks of an alarming fault line in our society.

There are obviously underlying reasons for the anger of South Africa's young, black people. Unemployed, with little on offer in terms of economic advancement and seemingly destined to remain the permanent underclass, there is little for them to hold dear.

That anger is also linked to an absence of something more - in the South African context it is a lack of moral sensibility and a common understanding of what we stand for as a society.

When Japan was hit by a tsunami earlier this year, citizens left their properties unattended to escape the floods. From all accounts, there was no looting and no damage to properties.

The Japanese went about restoring their lives with respect and dignity - their behaviour illustrative of Japan's moral value system.

What, then, is our moral compass, the moral value system which we abide by? Have we, as a 17-year-old democracy, even begun to agree on what constitutes a common value system?

Instead, we pride ourselves on our separateness; defining ourselves as a nation of disparate value systems.

Yet, we started out with so much promise in the republic that Nelson Mandela presided over. There was a moment of togetherness and the opportunity for something entirely new. But that promise was destroyed systematically by the men who came after Mandela.

There was the hubris of Thabo Mbeki that silenced critics by seeking refuge in the divisive politics of race. By the time Mbeki was humiliated at Polokwane, white South Africans had learnt to stick to the long grass rather than speak up.

Then came Jacob Zuma, whose own compromised personal circumstances offered us no guidance to move away from our separateness. Previously the head of the moral regeneration campaign, Zuma's friendships based on financial assistance, his sexual behaviour and a culture of business built on political patronage have all contributed a further entrenchment of our separateness.

This past week's "controversy" involving our sister publication, the Sunday Times, over their publication of a Facebook picture is illustrative of just how disparate our value systems are.

There were commentators who were more obsessed about the fact that the photograph of a white man in a perverted pose of a trophy kill had been in circulation for several years and that it was not a "new" story.

Others insisted its publication would add fuel to the racial fires and that white South Africans would be further alienated from their black counterparts. Surely, the response should have been outrage and condemnation instead of a feeding frenzy about the age of the image?

This is not about party politics, but rather the individual and collective will of South Africans. Instead of waiting for a ruling party to lead us into believing, we should be the ones insisting the rules on which this society will be based. The Constitution - so hard fought for and won with principles of integrity, dignity and respect - would be a good starting place.