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!

Creamfields festival fall a sign of the times

I tell you, the older I get the crustier and fustier I become. I'm very unimpressed with the behaviour of young folk today. They seem to have little or no sense of responsibility, and are often severely lacking in empathy.

I know you could find any number of po-mo quackademics who'd disagree vehemently. They'd say I'm pushing an ageist, conservative moral panic and that today's teenagers and twenty somethings are all really switched on and sensible. That's crap, I reckon.

Yes, I am a curmudgeon pushin' fifty but I was young once too, remember. And back in those times I can't recall my contemporaries being anywhere near as reckless and stupid as the youth of today.

Take this near tragedy in which a bloke fell twenty metres from scaffolding at the Creamfields dance music festival. I'm glad he's okay, but he was a total knob for climbing up there in the first place. 

And it wasn't just his actions that were so alarming. Watch the video and you'll see a young woman in the foreground. Look at her reaction as the bloke plummets earthward and in the seconds afterwards, when his fate was not yet known. She actually finds it funny.

Disturbing.