Responsibility

Responsibility is probably the most important characteristic any individual can have, and it is probably the least embraced characteristic of our society.

Case in point:

1. Our President can't admit to making mistakes.
2. Politicians blame everyone but their selves for problems.
3. Corporations are given more freedoms than people.
4. A culture of "myself before everyone else" has evolved. Communitarianism is losing to Social Darwinism.
5. Advertisements encourage people to indulge, and claim that anything can be fixed with another product rather than personal action.
6. Movies and television shows often feature characters and people who are able to succeed by skirting responsibilities in a humorous or clever ways. Some of the most common roles are the sympathetic villans (mobsters, thieves, tricksters, etc.)

The list goes on and on.

It is truly sad, because responsibility is the one characteristic that determines whether you truly make your life your own. When the breakdown of personal responsibility takes place in large numbers, so does the breakdown of community responsibility.

Our culture is sick. And nothing is proving that now more than Hurricane Katrina. When thousands of people aren't evacuated because of government didn't get buses in to ship people out, and when it takes days to give people food and water, and days to rescue people stuck in attics up to their necks in water filled with shit, and people in charge do everything that they can to blame the locals for these problems... we know there is a problem.

It has been really hard on me to think about what a failure of this proportion means to our society. I think about Nietzsche and his superman that he desperately wants to see rising above the herd. I think about the Jesus of the Bible who thinks that a rich man's chance of going to heaven is that of the ability to walk through the eye of a needle. Where are the people who take a stand and say "no, this is wrong?" Where are the people who say, "if I must lead, I must..." and show people what right and wrong really is.

Lack of responsibility is more than a personal catastrophe, it is a spiritual vacuum. How is it possible to live a meaningful life when responsibility is something you hide from?

My father always used to tell me to get my homework done before doing anything else after school. I always agreed with the sentiment (take care of your responsibilities), but I always tried to pace myself by rewarding myself with breaks as I went along. Typically, I do better work in smaller focused bursts than in marathon stretches, though I can do both. In any event, the prevailing philosophy I have always had is to take care of business. And if something doesn't get done, then its my fault and I accept the consequences.

Responsibility is ultimately about consequences. Whenever responsibility is irked, there are negative consequences. The more we fail ourselves and leave our responsibilities, the more we have to cover for it psychologically. This leads to negative behaviors, typically avoidant in nature.

Of course, these days, people from the lower classes are getting hit harder with more responsibilities than ever. Money doesn't got as far, and medical care needs are harder to get met. College is increasingly getting more expensive but minimum wage has stayed the same for 10 years nationwide. More and more people have to work as they go to college, and work 2 or 3 jobs.

But this is a sign that our national responsibilities aren't being met. In the "strongest nation in the world" we should do everything we can to help people achieve as much as they can. America, the land of opportunity, right? The failure is in the hands of those who are the richest. There is no failure of responsibility bigger than not doing what you can to help those who need it.