I was gobsmacked when I read this Tweet today (19/07/20):
@VikGrujic
@DanielAndrewsMP I will not wear a mask. I will not pay a fine. I will not comply. I will not bow down to you. Whatever you’re [sic] next set of demands are, I will not comply to either. I’m a proud Australian. Born free. Nothing will take that away from me. No virus. No dictator.
Many years ago, in the mid-70s, I was part of a group which established a branch of the Family Planning Association in the Northern Territory. We had an education sub-committee which, successfully, encouraged the Education Department to introduce a Human Relationships program into the secondary education curriculum.
Part of our approach was to stress the fact that to claim a right, requires the claimant to accept a responsibility.
Governments are elected to make decisions for the population of their electorate as a whole, keeping in mind that some people need protection from others, while other people need protection from themselves!
COVID-19 has been shown to be a potentially very nasty beast.
It certainly does not kill everyone who contracts the infection.
In general, those most at risk are the elderly and those with a compromised immune system.
But, more, insidiously, among many, apparently healthy people, the disease can be completely debilitating – in fact some are already despairing of ever recovering completely.
Some people can become infected without displaying obvious symptoms.
We have no vaccine.
We are still unsure how long the incubation period is.
We do not yet know whether an infected person who recovers can be re-infected.
(With all the known unknowns, this becomes like shades of Donald Rumsfeld! – but it is no joking matter!)
“No man is an island … ” is a well known and important quotation.
Unless we live in total isolation, much of the time our actions impact on other people, and vice versa.
Government laws and regulations are largely designed to protect individuals and other entities from adverse consequences from the actions of others.
The person responsible for the Tweet above does not deserve to mix in society.
His total failure to see himself as other than in isolation, going by his statement, totally disregards the fact that his actions affect others, and his apparent refusal to accept that others, also, have the right to not be harmed by those around them, means he should not be allowed to be in society!
America under Trump has helped to support this sort of selfish attitude, which says ‘I will live by my rules and you can live by yours, but don’t tell me what to do!’, ignoring the fact that we are all citizens of one Earth.
We have developed a cult of individual rights and freedoms which threatens to destabilise society altogether.
It has long been evident in the context of global warming, where the ‘right’ of shareholders to demand that corporations carry out their duty to make profits for them, has drowned out the voices of those who say they have no right to destroy life on this planet by their actions!
So I hope that those who know the tweeter, but do not share his attitude, will make it very clear to him that he is a selfish git who does not deserve any help or support from a society for which he does not give a stuff!
I end as always – this is my 2020 New Year Resolution:
“I will do everything in my power to enable Australia to be restored to responsible government.”
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