Posted on 12/09/2014 2:04:53 AM PST by servo1969
“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.” — P.J. O’Rourke
“We seem to be moving steadily in the direction of a society whereno one is responsible for what he himself did,but we are all responsible for what somebody else did, either in the present or in the past.” – Thomas Sowell
It’s truly bizarre how often in Obama’s America that we are being presented with “victims” we’re supposed to feel sorry for without anyone even seeming to notice that they created their own dilemma with their bad behavior.
Just to name one of many examples, while we shouldn’t condone excessive force by the police, citizens dealing with the cops should also be expected to behave responsibly. Attacking a police officer or even resisting arrest is an inherently dangerous activity just like climbing Mount Everest. If you do any of those things, there is a not insignificant chance that you will be injured or even killed. Again, that doesn’t mean the police should have a get-out-of-jail-free card, but if you fought the law and the law won, MOST people won’t shed a lot of tears for you, nor should they.
Along similar lines, we already have a way for foreigners to enter this country legally and become American citizens. Millions have done exactly that and have been welcomed. On the other hand, millions have also crossed the border illegally. They did so knowing that the penalty for coming to this country illegally is deportation. On some level, it HAS TO BE deportation because if foreigners can cross our borders with impunity, then in effect, we no longer have borders. Yet, we’re supposed to feel sorry for people who broke the law and are now faced with a just penalty for breaking the law because it will disrupt their lives. If their lives are harder because they chose to break the law, isn’t it their fault for behaving so irresponsibly in the first place? Why should anyone expect the welcome mat to be rolled out for him after he’s entered a foreign country illegally?
Then there are the people making minimum wage who want more money, but don’t want to earn it. Rather than building their skills so they can be promoted or moving on to a better job, their solution is to ask the government to force their employers to pay them more than they’re worth. Why should someone who can be replaced by a 16 year old with two weeks of training get $15 an hour for his work? If you’re dirt poor and you don’t want to do what it takes to earn more money, then you deserve to stay poor – and no matter what the government does, you will probably get exactly what you deserve.
The same goes for college loans. If you went $100,000 in debt to get a degree in philosophy and can’t pay it back, whose fault is that? You had five kids by five different daddies and now you’re struggling to pay the rent? You don’t say! You have tattoos all over your forearms and neck and no one will hire you? Why, who could have guessed that you’d have such a problem?
What’s the reaction to saying things like this? Shock? Outrage? Accusations that you have no heart or you’re not compassionate?
What’s shocking about common sense? What’s outrageous about telling people that they’re better off if they behave responsibly? What’s compassionate about habitually excusing bad behavior that consistently leads to bad outcomes?
I don’t want anybody to get shot by the police, but it’s probably truthful to say that 99% of the people who do, whether they’re black, white, green, or purple, could have avoided it if they had behaved responsibly when they were confronted by the police. The same illegal aliens most conservatives would LOVE to see deported would be welcomed here as citizens if they respected our laws and did it the right way. Plenty of people who have made the minimum wage (myself included) move on to make a lot more money if they’re responsible enough to work smart, work hard and keep making themselves more valuable.
The problem with encouraging irresponsible behavior is the more you feed the beast, the more it grows. You’re not “helping people” by excusing behavior you find abhorrent. That kind of “help” decimates people and when it’s done on a large enough scale, it ruins societies.
In America, we’re getting to the point where we’re stepping all over the people who work hard and play by the rules to cater to the irresponsible. Instead of wagging our fingers at the people who make society work because they’re not giving enough, what’s wrong with asking all of us to take a minimum level of responsibility for our own lives before we start pointing the finger at other people?
Why this outcome shocks anyone baffles me. What did people expect after liberal parents bubble wrapped their own children, then went on a crusade to turn activities into either criminal activities or teachable moment pizza parties with accompanying participation trophies? What did people think would happen when critical thought and logic were removed from classrooms and replaced by environmental/social justice programming?
It happened long enough ago that the kids are now making law in America and working in from of TV cameras and in newspapers. The result is as predictable as day following night.
To expect people never taught responsibility to display any is insane. It’s no different than asking an Eskimo for tips on survival in the Sahara. They are simply not equipped to grasp the issue.
There also seems to be a complete blackout of understanding the definitions of law....justice...and privilege. It's all about personal rights period.
This article is so mean and insensitive!
Thats the result of the 1936 Communist Goals and it’s effect on education. Undermine the foundation of law and the whole thing collapses.
Yes...it appears to be on track doesn’t it? Unfortunately with the break up of the family....womans rights etc. ....nobody’s home to rightly educate the children so the schools have free reign to indoctrinate at will.
But sadly, the libs have been fighting to make “the gipper” a forgotten figure.
Personable responsibility for ones actions is unthinkable in the liberal mindset.
The disease that is liberalism voids the host of all rational thought which invokes severe paranoia and eliminates rationale and points the finger at anyone else but them.
Conditioned by the progressive liberal socialists rats
Nobody’s responsible for themselves, except that there’s one group which seems to be responsible for everyone else-the law-abiding, taxpaying middle class citizen, especially the white, and particularly white male, portion of it. They are somehow responsible even for things which happened 200 years ago, or on another continent, even though every demographic in history has at one time or another done the same thing, and some are still doing those things, like slavery under Muslims. Even though they shed blood to end those evils, and are still having their “wealth” redistributed to those others, so those others can have large litters, while that responsible citizen must put off family formation until they can afford to support their own children as well as those of the parasites.
“Ask not what your country can do for you...” just vote liberal to get your belly rubs.
That's raccis' and the IRS will be right over to see the author.
You forget that the old, beat-up “race card” has been DECLINED since early November.
Nicely put, Mr. Hawkins! Good article!
Now, how do we fix it?
oh?
"...it takes a village..."
The one's who think that POLITICS is answer will say:
Elect folks who will END the subsidization of SLOTH!
Others; looking deeper will say:
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name,
shall humble themselves,
and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways; ,
then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.
jeb, rove, and the chamber of commies in particular.
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