Sunday, July 29, 2012

Regarding shark attacks, government says we're responsible (for once)

The reasoning behind government policies can be quite fascinating, and it's often inconsistent. Take the reaction to the recent alarming increase in shark attacks off Western Australian beaches. The Department of Fisheries has produced an internal report that says beach-goers should realize the risks and "take responsibility" for their own behaviour.

This is of course a completely reasonable position. Yet when it comes to so many other aspects of modern life, the government line is that people are not responsible for their actions and need to be protected from the consequences of them.

Take smoking, for instance. Billions have been poured into crippling the tobacco industry, with assaults from several angles. (I know lefties will say this is different, since nicotine is addictive. But that's crap. You can choose to give up the durries. Just takes some willpower, that's all.)

Then there's crime. The concept of personal responsibility is clearly a quaint and eccentric notion to many of our lawmakers. How many times have you read of some murdering scumbag getting off with just a slap on the wrist because he was "depressed"?

Would be great if this "you're on your own so get your s--t together" attitude were applied a bit more widely, I reckon. Hell, we might even start to see a few social ills decreasing in their severity, then!

2 comments:

  1. I'm surprised we don't see governments turning the sharks into victims who just need understanding. We need to provide more services to sharks who may be suffering from depression and anxiety disorders.

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  2. It's about sharks not dugong!

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