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4 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
We all must take responsibility
In the early days of the Walkerton
water crisis Premier Mike Harris
came under a storm of criticism when
he tried to point the finger of blame
for the tragedy at everyone but his
government. What the premier was
doing, however, was pretty much the
same as most of
us do these days.
It's ironic that
while our society
insists that goy-.
ernment should
be smaller and
people should
take respon-
sibility for their
own lives, most
people are tired
of being respon-
sible themselves.
How many
people in
Walkerton who
later blamed the provincial govern-
ment for not protecting them from the
deficiencies in their water system
never paid any attention to their own
local government in all the years
those problems were developing?
How many were attracted to vote for
the cost-cutting and red -tape
eliminating policies of the Harris
government without considering the
consequences?
The people of Walkerton are no
different than a large part of the
population these days — except
they're paying a terrible price. Most
people right now seem to want to go
through life without asking questions,
without having to think. They want to
just do their jobs or enjoy their
pleasures without thinking about
what'their decisions might mean in
the long term.
When researchers began cloning
animals they were asked about the
morality of their actions. Morality,
they said, was not up to them. That
was up to someone else to decide.
Yet when anyone wants to limit
experimentation, researchers get
upset that the freedom of scientists is
being restricted.
Artists, similarly, don't want to
ask questions about the influence
they have for good or evil. When
critics object to the possible influence
We can't just
say we're just
doing our jobs
on young minds of too much violence
or too much sexual content, the
creators cry' "Hey, it's only a movie
(or book or TV show)". Yet if
someone suggests regulating the
content of that material, artists
suddenly declare that the arts are too
important to be censored.
After the atomic bomb was
developed 55 years ago, a few scient-
ists like J. Robert Oppenheimer,
director of the Manhattan Project,
were haunted for the rest of their
lives as having created something
that could destroy people by the
millions. The majority of the thous-
ands of scientists on the project,
however, never questioned their part,
enjoying the challenge of their work
and shrugging off the responsibility
to the politicians who would actually
give the order to use it.
During World War II, Albert
Spear started out as Hitler's architect
but later became the minister in
charge of providing the weapons
necessary to fight the war. He never
questioned the right or wrong of his
work, even while using slave labour
to carry out Hitler's plans. He was
just being a professional.
German leaders like Spear weren't
allowed to get away with the excuse
they were just following orders or
just doing their jobs. The Nuremberg
trials established the precedent that
people are responsible for their
actions, even in time of war.
Yet more than half a century later
the countries that imposed that
morality on German leaders are
infected with the attitude that each
individual must seek self-fulfillment
no matter what the consequences.
"Hey, it's not up to me" people
say as they make decisions that will
change their world, from adopting
new technologies to abandoning their
local merchants. "Hey, it's not up to
me" they say as they leave it up to
others to run local governments and
support local farm and civic groups.
"I've got my own life to live,"
people say. Unfortunately it isn't so
easy. Everything we do, everything
we don't do, affects our world.0
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice. He
lives near Blyth, ON.