Responsibility can cure problems

It has been a long time coming, but I’ve finally decided to grow up. Responsibility and moderation are the cure for all of society's ills. Governments and societies should be organized into a Darwinian progression toward more efficient functioning. Just as I have made mistakes, so too can the government.

I am an advocate for personal control, only because when a person makes a mistake, it affects only himself and those around him. When the government makes a mistake it affects us all.

We create a war on drugs that doesn’t need to be fought; a war on poverty that can never be won; and war against pollution that we won't know if we've won or lost in our lifetimes. They are inventions of the human mind to tell us how to live, and mostly, for a way to show us that we're trying to be better people.

It is not laws or control mechanisms that are needed to curb the societal problems that we face, but an educated understanding of the forces with which we hope to control.

As college students, our lives are full of stressful situations and as individuals our responses to these situations are as varied as the problems we confront. If we ignore our own responsibility for our mental and physical conditions and pass the responsibility onto a government-run organization, it will only lead to an increase in some of the social problems that we hope to resolve.

For example, television censorship may result in entire generations of children who don’t understand that violence caused pain. When all they see is the WWF wrestlers and Hercules jumping back up after being pummeled, then it is a logical assumption that they won’t know the true consequences of their actions.

Increased divorce rates, which quadrupled since the 1970’s and more and more single mothers can be seen as a result of social programs and a heavier reliance on the government to solve family problems.

In the past, when people were in debt, out of work, or in trouble, they had to turn to their families for help. Today, we turn to the government. While it is my assertion that personal responsibility and moderation of the excesses in one’s life are the only true solution, government reliance can be seen as a Darwinian progression. Only time will tell whether one choice is better than another.

Life could be thought of as a series of mistakes leading up to a perfect solution. This philosophy is flawed though, it assumes that there is a right or wrong answer, which there is not.

More properly, society and life should be thought of as a creative process. Governments must make mistakes, there must be laws placed on the book at different times that are completely wrong. Likewise, individuals make mistakes. I’ve made my share, but if decisions are wrong then they will go away with time and it is the process of learning from these choices that makes society stronger.

Our government is fed by the thoughts and minds of the people, an organization to protect us from ourselves, but it’s almost comical if you think about it. It’s the blind leading the blind. After all, if we are the government, and if we can’t protect or take responsibility for ourselves then how can we expect to protect and take responsibility for everybody else?

I have no fear of the future, I can only see good. We may face hardships and stress but in the end we will survive. I once was an angry young man, but not anymore, I’ve grown up and the world looks like a better place.

Ian Clift is a sophomore in School of Science.

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