The Anti-Self-Responsibility Movement

At a recent community meeting about gangs on Long Island, one resident proposed enacting curfews for teenagers. Of course, this is a rash, "something-must-be-done" overreaction to crimes some kids commit on our streets at night, and is indicative of a wider, alarming movement.

The argument favoring this proposal goes something like this: "Teens shouldn't be out on the streets after (insert time) anyway, and if they're acting criminally then we must set a curfew for them." Translation: the government and I know the best time for your kids to return home, and we'll protect them by passing a curfew law to keep all kids off the streets.

But enforcing a curfew, particularly in a town where rampant crime, riots and war are far from the rule or are nonexistent, is just another way of taking away more responsibilities from parents. Just as parents must decide whether their teens can drive the family car, date and smoke cigarettes, they must determine when their kids should come home at night.

Further, a government-backed curfew unjustly punishes the teen who has legitimate, peaceful reasons to be out at late hours, including walking home from a friend's house when his parent cannot pick him up. This law, at root, would violate both a parent's right to set his own curfews and his kid's right to travel at night.

A parallel to curfews that absolve parents of responsibility is the call to hold them legally responsible for the crimes of their kids. Washington DC, for example, is considering suspending the driver's licenses of parents whose teens break the law.

As Dr. Michael Hurd, a psychologist in Maryland, writes, "There are some parents who do everything possible to control the actions of their kids but to no avail...It's not right to punish parents who are trying their best for the misdeeds of their youth."

The fact is that kids have free will. They chose their own actions. A parent is not criminally responsible for her teen's actions. If a mother must lose her license because, say, her daughter chose to drive while drunk, then where does this parental prosecution end? Do we arrest and charge a father for his son's armed robbery, rape or murder? By punishing parents for the illegal activities of their teens, we undercut the responsibility kids alone must take for their chosen crimes.

And undercutting self-responsibility is what fundamentally unites proponents of measures to set curfews and criminalize innocent parents. Absolving people from taking responsibility for their actions is a growing movement based on irrational motives.

What basically motivates the anti-self-responsibility proponents? With curfews, they want to hand government more unnecessary and unjust paternalistic powers. With criminalizing innocent parents, they seek to further deny that children have free will and to push instead the falsehood that unruly kids are stricken with some alleged uncontrollable "disorder," "diseases" or "chemical imbalance."

All this is part of the erosion of self-responsibility appearing in increasingly more areas of American life, and typically under cover of so-called "good intentions." People who chose to smoke can blame their lung cancer on an addiction and tobacco companies. Americans who regularly eat fast foods can point accusatory fingers at McDonald's and Wendy's for their obesity or heart problems. Killers can have gun manufacturers share the blame for their decision to use their weapons for murder instead of self-defense.

A movement is afoot in this nation to raise the self-esteem of children. But as Dr. Hurd points out in his book "Grow Up America!," the bedrock of self-esteem is to take responsibility for your own life, choices and actions. The anti-self-responsibility proponents, therefore, are effectively working to lower people's self-esteem. Ultimately, their movement leads some kids to join gangs to "be somebody," to act violently on their emotions of insecurity, and to expect the innocent to share the blame and even be sued for crimes they alone chose to perpetrate.

Joseph Kellard is a journalist living in New York. To read more of Mr. Kellard's commentary, visit his website The American Individualist at americanindividualist.blogspot.com.