A More Civil Society

While David Cameron may have received a great deal of criticism for embracing 'Big Society', the policy raises a damning point about modern life: civil society is weaker these days.

Niall Ferguson used his attempt to have a beach cleared of rubbish (a job apparently reserved for the local council) as an example:

I believe that spontaneous local activism by citizens is better than central state action, not just in terms of its results, but more importantly in terms of its effect on us as citizens. For true citizenship is not just about voting, earning and staying on the right side of the law. It is also about participating in the “troop” — the wider group beyond our families — which is precisely where we learn how to develop and enforce rules of conduct. In short, to govern ourselves. To educate our children. To care for the helpless. To fight crime. To clear the beach of rubbish.

Certainly, one of the most tiresome refrains in New Zealand public discourse is that the "government should do it". Or, even more annoyingly, that the government "should pay for it", which seems to completely miss the point that the government, given that its sole income source is in most cases the taxpayer, is, fiscally speaking, us. I uphold the liberal belief in the importance of government as much as the next person, but the vicarious impulse to blame someone else for one's own problems is something I find annoying, too.

Arrant conservatism, and a belief in the divinity of the free market, is something I certainly do not share. There are limits to what people can and will do on their own. But, in the absense of competent government, by all means do it yourself. You'll probably do a better job anyway.