Toronto Sun article about ‘responsibility’

Responsibility, as all sane people should expect, is a two-way street. Yet, some people think otherise. I should have suspected that the columnist in question was a religionist when I hit the word 'righteous', but the website confirms it.

Praytell, Mr. Coren, how exactly do we tell what authority is 'righteous', or even right? Because they say so? If that's the case then every fool on the street corner would be the authority on everything. Because they are commanded by god? No, that one's out: there are many religious books and sources, all of them conflicting.

Besides, if we had a God, there wouldn't be a thing as free will, and we wouldn't need to worry about rights nor responsibilities.

So exactly how do we decide again? Oh yes, that's right. Have it imposed upon us from above. Mr. Coren seems so caught up in the questions of responsibilities that he forgets that authority figures have responsiblity too, and if they don't, it's our responsibility to kick them out and find someone that does. But no, wait, that would mean that we the people might have a right. Whoops.

The opening to the article is more disturbing, perhaps, describing a man who, suspected of being a terrorist, was ordered at gunpoint to strip naked. Mr. Coren questions the wisdom of allowing someone suspected of "terrorism" (whatever that means) rights at all. But wait, don't the police have the responsibility to attempt to discern whether this person is actually a terrorist.

No, apparently I'm wrong there too, because obviously we've got to live in fear and assume that every arabic-in-appearance person is named M[o|u]hammed and walks around with bombs strapped to his|her chest and a detanator in hand.

A very one-sided article, Mr. Coren, but you seem to have forgotten to think about what responsibility means.

But that's what I expect from religionists. And authoritarians too, which seems to include most of all religionists. I'll quote ESR here: "Authoritarianism must be fought whereever it is found, lest it smother you and other hackers".