More on Responsibilities..

Earlier this month I wrote a little about responsibilities, and last week there was a piece in the Australian making the same point:

The Aussie whinge has been around forever but is it getting worse and it is a symptom of something bigger. Modern Australians live in a cultural bubble. They have lost the art of self-reliance and think the Government has magically to fix things when they're overseas [...] Australians appear overwhelmingly inclined to take less responsibility: for our children, our old people, ourselves. We are our own chief responsibility, not that of the Government. Now we hear a great deal about the ultimate nanny state illusion. a new charter of rights, but nothing about a charter of responsibilities.

We live in the most blessed country on earth and we have inherited a great tradition. As free-born, relatively rich, English-speaking Australians, we have every right anyone has wanted in the history of the world. Our political life and society are the culmination of the benevolent vision of the great 19th-century English social reformers and of the colonial founding fathers. Australians don't need any more rights, especially phony ones. It is about time we cultivated a few responsibilities.

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