13 February

Here’s another way to look at a society without tradition and meaningful institutions. Williams describes the end point of doing that, the young, and the old and frail get thrown on the scrap heap, with only the healthy adult age group getting meaningful attention. That’s what the breaking down of the ‘circle of life’ means, it gets replaced with the ‘lifestyle’ needs of healthy adults. For example, schools and aged care are underfunded and treated as dumping grounds for kids and the old and frail. We’ve lost a lot of the ideas of duty and responsibility and tradition, how our young and adults and old interact, which our institutions maintained.