On the other side of every right, lies a responsibility. I was reminded of this fact in a conversation with some elder statesmen this past weekend.
It was an important and timely reminder because in the advocacy space, as you lobby for one or other thing to be upheld and respected you have got to also manage what the responsibilities that go with it will be.
For a while I have got a sense that we have, as a people, neglected our responsibilities. Which might talk to why the city is so filled with litter. It might also talk to why there’s a seeming gap in service delivery. It might even stretch so far as to address why there are so many murders inflicted by gunshots.
I want today to ruminate on the social contract we as citizens and society have with government, but from our point of view. We often discuss the failures of government in delivering services, but what are the things we do to contribute to that problem? I have repeated in gest the line that “we don’t hate corruption, we hate not benefiting from it” and as the old adage goes the truth is often couched in gest.
So, as people we will do things that are crooked, or fall foul of the law, and get away with them and then expect that other crimes will be prosecuted. I cringed (and still do) when people screamed blue murder at the prospect of the police being out and about enforcing the rules of the road. People were especially mad about no longer being able to drink and drive. It was crazy, but a brilliant snapshot of our refusal to accept the responsibility that goes with the right.
Moreover, in general life, we have come to accept that well take the “hand up” where it exists for us specifically. That extra spoonful of meat at a funeral. That quick efficient service at a government department or that “go ahead” gesture from an officer who has taken their pound of feathers.
We actively participate in corruption all the time, on micro scale and then expect that it won’t or shouldn’t happen on a macro scale. Why?! Those doing it on the macro scale are doing it for almost exactly the same reason as you are on the micro scale. Why do you hold them to a higher standard? Or why do you think your corruption is more acceptable?
The social fabric is held together by everybody participating accordingly. It is held together by all of us agreeing that we are going to uphold the conventions pre accepted. So, when I contravene them in the smallest way, and my neighbour does too, and his neighbour as well, soon we have torn it asunder and there is no social fabric to speak of. Soon it is generally accepted that we are a nation that drives drunk. Soon it is accepted that shoot and kill people we have any level of disagreement with, and soon it is accepted that the only way to procure one or other service is to deliver a brown envelope to the service provider.
Responsibility is difficult because it requires the best form of you to account to it. It requires the you, you are meant to be as opposed to the you, you have become owing to life’s disappointments and harsh lessons. You have to rise above them and still act responsibly. So, let’s be a responsible people. Let’s rekindle our shared responsibility and re-stitch our societal fabric. So many things will start to go right if we partake in this exercise…
