Personal Responsibility

Warning - here comes a pretty rabid rant about personal responsibility.

Two things have set me off today. First one was this morning, when I found a mess in the toilet in the rec center restroom. What is sooooo hard about flushing, people?!!! You don't have a right to do things that negatively impact other people, especially things about which you have some choice and control. Second, was Katy's post about healthy food choices and fast food companies. Hello America!!! YOU are resposible for what you put in your mouth for food, NOT anyone else!! Everyone should have a basic grasp on the concept of advertising in this country. Companies try to make food seem delicious and appealing, regardless of whether or not it has too much fat or has a lot of nutritionally empty calories. It's YOUR JOB to engage your brain and THINK about your food choices. The ingredients to food these days is well known. Hamburgers and fries have lots of unhealthy fat, and very little nutrients to offer. It's not rocket science, people. You should know better!! Get fat if you want to, but quit blaming it on other people!

Now, let's get scary and rant about government and politics. Government is for basic civilization - basic laws for the protection of its citizens from the willful harm of other people, be they foreign or domestic. Said government must have some kind of funds to run itself, thus we have taxes. There is also a basic necessity to regulate public interactions, from roads to food production. And it's nice if the goverment will chip in to educate the rising generation. But a government DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT OR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE A UTOPIA!!! People will sometimes, or frequently, make choices that cause harm to other people. It seems like government these days is trying to encourage that behavior by saying, "It's okay to make poor choices, we'll clean up the mess!" A government cannot make everything "all better." People just have to suffer the consequences of their bad choices. Unfortunately, the innocent suffer, too, but we cannot make things better in the long run, if those who make the poor choices are buffered from the consequences of those choices. Buffering them, or eliminating the consequences altogether, will only make things worse.

A lack of personal responsibility is a huge part of what is wrong our country, and in the world, today. And government needs to let the individual person shoulder more of the responsibility for keeping this country strong. Be willing to govern yourself, or someone else is going to run your life for you, to your everlasting detriment.