LACKING SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 167, 20 July 1946, Page 4

LACKING SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

REASON FOR WORLD-WIDE UPHEAVAL

“The pressing need of the day is the development of a sense of responsibility," opened the Rev. A. C. McLean, when addressing the Junior Chamber of Commerce recently. “Lawlessness and irresponsibility are rife as the crime wave sweeping over the world, and the upheavals in domestic, social, and industrial life are all too clearly indicated," he said. “Two attitudes are chiefly responsible for this state of affairs: (1) The follow-my-leader attitude which draws people into gangs in an atempt to escape personal ’■esponsibility. Like the Nazi war criminal, many folk here try to shift their personal responsibilities on to the gangs or groups to which they belong. This sort of thing is encouraged by those who are seeking to get power into their own hands. (2) The leaner’ attitude which make people expect things to happen without doing anything about them. There is an increasing tendency that the proper balance between the obligations of the State to control industrial and commercial life in the interests of the nstion, to provide for those who have been overtaken by misfortune, ar;l to protect those who are being victimised and the obligations of citizens to undertake service for the bunding up of national culture and prosperity. “The consequences of their attitudes are seen, not only in the crime wates and the unrest in domestic and industrial life, but in the derth of responsible leaders in all lorrns of sorul activity,” continued the Rev. McLean. “Plenty of money is available for the work in which numerous voluntary societies are engaging, but there is a paucity of men to do that work. “But power always goes with responsibility. Britain's strength has always lain," not in its code of laws or its machinery of justice, but on the willingness of its citizens Io assurrw i esponsibility. The work of Frien.ily Societies, workers’ institutes, chambers of commerce, and organisations like the St. John Ambulance Brigade and the Red Cross Society, has served to keep alive this sense of responsibility. “Anything that stifles such voluntary social work deals a blow to the heart of the national life," the speaker said. “During the years between World Wai- I and World War II there was a serious decline in personal responsibility, and it requir?d the humiliating experience of Munich in 1938 to re-awaken it. The acceptance of personal responsibility is necessary to the preservation and growth of our national life. The Junior Chamber of Commerce is doing a service to this city and the nation at large in fostering a sense of responsibility among its members," said Mr. McLean. “This, is the mark of Adult Citizenship."