Why do so few of our decent, hard-working, caring, young Australians get the credit they deserve?

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Sure they're not all as famous as the young man who ran to Bondi, barefoot, with a defibrillator. But they're out there. Every day thousands of young Australians are doing good, kind things we rarely hear about.

Unfortunately, even younger Australians don't see the example they set. Mum and Dad telling them what is the right way to behave might be their only guiding light. How much better for them if they could see the rest of us agree with Mum and Dad?

Instead we're treated to the usual bad news. We need to know it. We'd be entitled to complain if we weren't told the ugly stuff. But proportionality matters. More to the point, there are too many stories about the undeserving whingers of the world.

It now seems de rigueur to share your unhappiness in the expectation that the rest of us will be concerned.

Ricky Gervais got it right when he said you are entitled to be offended but not entitled to expect anyone to care. What takes over people to imagine that the rest of us should agree with or be even interested in their view?

Nonetheless the exhortation "I'm offended by that" is more often than not accompanied with the expectation that you will apologise and withdraw the remark. These self-absorbed performance artists give weight to their opinion and feelings; but not yours. We are in the me-not-you era.

Currently, we have an echelon of people, not all in the younger category, who can be described as: "Ashamed of nothing, offended by everything, contributing to nothing and entitled to everything".

You and I, the community or society at large are not as important as these individuals are to themselves. When you no longer see yourself as part of the wider community, or society, things go pear-shaped.

Robbing the local store because you want a new phone or whatever becomes acceptable. The store owner needing to make a living, the prices going up because of theft just don't enter your head. The social contract we need with each other in order to live together in a functioning society deteriorates.

These guys frequently masquerade as victims. It's an insult to those who truly are. Masquerading as a victim or victim survivor for some appears almost a........

© The Examiner