Call me naive, but isn't the role of a democratically elected government to represent the voice of the community - and ensure every voice gets reflected in decision making? Through justice services, aren't governments supposed to put a floor on acceptable behaviour and provide mechanisms for restoration, reconciliation and rehabilitation?
We have a consumer-based culture that's all about individual rights, individual access, etc - but we've left out the social accountability piece.
We need the social accountability piece.
Ayn Rand was wrong, folks - society is a system of which we're all a part. When we work against each other, constantly, ignoring things we don't think matter, problems arise that impact all parts of the whole, like an illness. The role of government is to serve as brain, responding to the needs of the parts and coordinating operation against them.
Oh - and when the elected mechanism of government fails to do its job, others step up to fill that space that aren't accountable to the public. That's how revolutions happen.
It's time the institutions we're meant to rely on step up to the plate.
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