Travel broadens the mind and tires the body, diminishes the bank account and enriches the soul.

I’ve just returned from a tour of the length and half the breadth of Tasmania.  Five days of pleasant surprises and revelations.

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What is the role of corporations in our society and what should it be?  Is a company a person?  Should it have the same rights and responsibilities as a person?  What should be the relationships between corporations, ‘natural persons’ and governments?

If you read acts of parliament, you will find the term ‘natural person’ used from time to time.  This is designed to distinguish between flesh-and-blood human beings and corporations.  Why is this necessary?  Who would consider the two to be equivalent?

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One area where citizens’ freedoms are curtailed is in government-private-business contracts.  There is a growing trend for governments to restrict public information about the details of arrangements it makes with businesses in the name of commercial confidentiality.  It is understandable that businesses may not to want the details of their methods and internal economics to be made available to competitors.  But is there any reason for those who are paying for a freeway (the citizens) to not be given details of the financial arrangements between a government and the company building a multi-billion-dollar road?  Should we not know what penalties are to apply for late completion, or what arrangements are in place should a bridge start cracking after, say, twenty years?

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It has been reported (although I have not been able to find independent confirmation) that in the USA patents may be granted on a person’s chromosomes if that person has had tissue taken as part of medical treatment.  If this is in fact the case, it would mean that someone, other than the individual involved, owns that individual.  The individual would not be able to do anything with their body that would infringe on the patent-holder’s rights.

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Do we have inalienable rights?  How is the balance found between the rights of individuals and the needs of a society?  Does personal sovereignty exist?

There are examples of personal coercion we may agree with.  For instance, we may not argue with someone who is hurting others being incarcerated to be dealt with by the courts.  We may not argue with people being forcibly evacuated from a flooded area or some other natural disaster.

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Do you own you?  You may live your life on the basis that you are a free agent, that you own your body and that you control your mind.  You may assume that, as long as you obey all the laws and treat others properly, you can do what you want.  To a large extent this is so, but not entirely.

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In an earlier post, I pointed out that it is actually impossible for doctors to keep up with all new discoveries and developments in medicine.  Is your doctors’ lack of knowledge their fault?  Or is your being at the receiving end of medical ‘error’ an example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

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Who do you hold responsible for making you happy or successful?  Do you blame the government for making life more difficult than you would like it to be?  Do you blame your parents for bringing you up too strictly, or not strictly enough?

Who is responsible for your life?

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I want to look at some other aspects of responsibility.

In Australia, following on the heels of the trend in the USA, there is a growing perception that if something bad happens to you, someone should be made to pay.  There are many consequences of this and not many of them are positive.

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In the previous post I talked of a bushfire being a circumstance to which you respond with choices. If your choice was to leave and your house burns down, do you ‘blame’ anyone or anything?  Finding your house burnt down on your return is ‘the next experience’ you have moved on to and this ‘next experience’ becomes the current circumstance (symptom) to which you have an opportunity to respond.

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