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I suspect part of the reaction we have seen of late to Chris Luxon and his stance on crime and the general depravation that passes for acceptable life in this country these days is it's coming from one of the two mainstream parties.

Smaller parties are the domain of the more radical thinking. The M\u0101ori Party and their desire to run the country under their interpretation of what was signed off a couple of hundred years ago. Or the Greens and their desire to destroy farming to save the world. The nutty stuff is at the fringes.

And in comes good old Chris Luxon with some straight up and down criticism of parents and, god forbid, principals. He is actually in a blameless country looking to lay a bit of blame and point out a few old fashioned rules around responsibility.

And dear lord, we can't cope with it. Apart from anything it\u2019s a living experiment, which is what this country is these days, of just how easily peoples' attitudes and outlooks can shift.

It wasn\u2019t so long ago that responsibility, whether it be that of a parent or any sort of community leader, teachers included, was something that was expected and aspired to. It was when we were a rock star economy. We were so proud of it, we kept repeating it.

We expected to do well, being successful was a habit, but in five short years, we have let ourselves go. We have dropped the diet, we have\xa0have given up on the exercise,\xa0we have become flabby,\xa0we are\xa0now\xa0fat and lazy, and\xa0we are now finding excuses as to why it is acceptable.

And Luxon has rolled in\xa0and pointed out what a mess we look. And dear oh dear, some of us aren't having it.

The simple truth is\xa0the statistics\xa0don't lie. Look at the statistics\xa0around crime or ram raids,\xa0imprisonment,\xa0violence,\xa0truancy,\xa0welfare. They are all there,\xa0they are all getting worse,\xa0and they are all embarrassing.

And\xa0the fact those who are most upset are the architects of the mess. And yet in being outraged at people like\xa0Luxon they fail to see that what they offer is no alternative. You can't shout him down, having created the problem he's pointing out.

Being a\xa0parent does actually involve you having work,\xa0getting your kids to school,\xa0and participating in the real world. This isn't a shock, it isn't news, it isn't new, and it's not anything radical.

Unless you\u2019ve joined the opt out brigade,\xa0as promoted and paid for by this current government,\xa0it suits them to have you beholden,\xa0it suits them to do the thinking and instructing for you.

It speaks volumes as to how far we have sunk that\xa0a simple message of responsibility and demanding better has been met by so much outcry.

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