ABANDONED - OUR MORAL DUTIES |
Sir - An issue which has received little
attention from politicians or media in the recent election campaign is
the moral decay of our nation.
Morality includes such values as honesty, the pursuit
of truth, responsibility, duty, fairness in interpersonal relations, concern
for one's immediate neighbours, respect for property, loyalty and duty
to ones' spouse and children, the work ethic and keeping one's word
The emphasis is upon the duty and responsibility
of the individual. No society can function efficiently or humanely and
no civilization can endure without these values.
The failure to assume responsibility for one's own
actions and the tendency to look to government for everything are among
the consequences of the breakdown of traditional morality.
Traditional morality is inestimably important. Without
it all kinds of injustices and oppressions are sanctioned; not the distorted
and imaginary oppressions of Marxist theory, but the real oppressions which
arise when men forget the Golden Rule: love your neighbour as yourself.
The abandonment of traditional morality leads to
the expropriation of private property, heavy taxation, theft, waste ,compulsory
association, totalitarian thought control, sexual exploitation, homeless
children, fraud and dishonesty, disloyalty to family, ever increasing government
power and control, envy indiscipline, laziness, individual irresponsibility,
indecency, rudeness, impoliteness, social engineering and genocide, not
to mention impiety.
The values of society derive from its spiritual
and moral foundations. When those foundations are destroyed a vacuum exists
and people can be manipulated according to the ideology and power ambitions
of ruling elites.
All religions emphasize the importance of duties
and responsibilities as distinct from rights. The Ten commandments are
duties. There is an emphasis on rights to the near exclusion of duties
and responsibilities in modern society. There is a grave danger in the
push for legislative recognition of subjective rights (so-called) in response
to the demands of politically influential pressure groups.
A duty centred society is preferable to a right
centred society. If individuals are concerned about their duties, responsibilities
and obligations, they cannot but be concerned about the rights needs and
freedoms of others.
A rights centred society is one in which individuals
assert their rights. People are encouraged by individuals organisations
and Commonwealth and state departments and instrumentalities to demand
rights with no consideration for the effect of those demands on other people.
Governments and pressure groups which focus
on rights give no thought to how rights can operate in the absence
of of a climate in which the importance of duties is emphasised. By comparison
a duty-conscious society gives rise to respect for rights.
There is no end to the so called rights which
can be demanded. A right conscious society in effect recognises a few rights
( neglects many others ). The rights which are recognised are those demanded
by the powerful, the aggressive and the nasty
There cannot be a right without a duty. An endless
cacophony of demands by interest groups has become a dominant feature of
the modern Australian State (fed by legislation which encourages these
demands). At the same time there is a deafening silence on the question
of individual responsibility.
History has continually demonstrated that the greatest
of civilisations decline and fall when they succumb to indulgence at the
expense of discipline and endeavour. The fate of Aegyptian and Roman civilisations
are prime examples. It is not too early for Western civilisation to heed
the supreme lesson of human experience.
L.J.M. Cooray
Beecroft N.S.W.
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