Deferred responsibility

Modern western society is built on the idea of the Social Contract. Individuals of a society give up some of their rights to the nation in exchange for the benefits that being part of that nation. For example citizens give up the right to absolute freedom in exchange for the civil order that comes from having laws and a police force to enforce those laws. The social contract is also the idea that gives legitimacy to governments and states. Individual citizens form a social contract with the state and allow it to exist.

The second theory I was thinking about today is the idea of a deferred responsibility. A parent who sends their child on a school holiday program while they work is an example of a deferred responsibility. The parent is responsible for their child's supervision over the holiday period but instead they defer that responsibility to the provider of the holiday program.

As a society we have become very good at the concept of deferred responsibility. As part of the social contract we defer responsibility for providing for the disadvantaged in our community to the government who have then deferred that on to private organisations. When we watch 'a Current Affair' and they show us the poor state of a nursing home we immediately lambast the money hungry owners of the nursing home. However under the concept of the social contract we are all responsible, by extension, for that nursing home.

As far as the social contract extends we as citizens are responsible for the actions of our government because we have given them legitimacy through the social contract. We are therefore responsible for their budgets, their wars, their healthcare plans, their lack of public transport, etc.

Do you take this into account when you watch 'A Current Affair'?

What I read today:

Behold the Jewish Jesus

Emergent Salvationism