“If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.”
These words, spoken by Margaret Thatcher in 1987, explored the virtue of individual responsibility and the iniquity of evading such responsibility. The notion of taking responsibility for oneself, family, and community is central to the ideology underpinning American conservatism. Reflecting this principle is the American Left’s alternative, which aims to explicitly encourage individuals to avoid responsibility by placing all responsibility (and therefore blame for any failures) upon others, whether on an individual, group, or abstract level.
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