Until Schools lose their obsession with cranking out HSC results at the cost of everything else, we cannot expect the coming generations to take any more responsibility for others than those that have come before. If anything, society is making us more isolationist than in the past.

Susan

Thank you for your article. Lots of food for thought.

Even so, I am more concerned about local "bystanders", vis a vis, NSW politicians who daily see homeless mentally ill people sleeping on the steps of NSW Parliament House and who then saunter down to Matthew Talbot Hostel for a meal.

Our conscience should begin on our own shores.

Cheers
Kay

I'm not sure what your argument is Susan. Are you saying individuals should do more to ensure a sense of community, of active citizenship, because the government is not doing enough? But the reason people don't do more is because they have an expectation that someone else (the state, perhaps?) should do more? Isn't this a bit of a circular argument?

Remove the expectation of assistance from the state, and people will do more, it will become rational to do so. Work harder and save, give to charity, watch out for your neighbours, individuals don't do these things because they have been conditioned to believe the government owes them something, the government will look after it, there should be more police on the streets, what are my tax dollars paying for anyway?

Society is the some of individuals actions, but when the state interferes and makes ignoring an individual's responsiblities not just rational but justifiable, the fruit of the nanny state is self-evident, a breakdown of the bonds that make society more than just looking out for number one.

Why doesn't the rich do something more for the poor?

They are too busy accumulating their riches enabling them to buy shares to make more out of their money.

Just ask Kucera and Alana and a now embroiled Liberal opposition leader.