Personal and Collective Responsibility- That is SO Last Century!

"It's not my fault." "These things always seem to happen to me." "I can't help it- this is just the way I am!" And yada yada yada.

Here in the United States (and around much of the world, I might add), the concept of personal responsibility has gone out of fashion. Not only has individual personal responsibility gone out of fashion, but collective responsibility has as well.

I would like to discuss the topic of personal responsibility and how it relates to collective responsibility. The former is necessary for the latter, and unfortunately, we are suffering from a lack of both in our society.

The thing is, until the majority of a society's people exercise the concept of personal responsibility as a value, they will not demand that it be exercised by others. It is only when we as individuals in the American society regain the virtue of taking responsibility for our actions and their consequences, that we will demand our leaders- to include business, political, religious, etc.- do the same.

We as a society have two forms of crises on our shoulders; first, we have a myriad of problems; and second, no one seems to be responsible for them. Somehow, we find our country in trillions of dollars of debt; foreign entanglements; a state of social fragmentation; and etc (I could go on for hours...). But amazingly enough, these things just sort of "happened;" you know, like some great mysterious force called "change" brought them into existence.

And even if we could determine who the culprits were, they probably were just trying to do the best they could... it's just that things didn't always work out in reality like they do on paper- right? No conspiracy theories here ;)

So many 'conspiracy watchers' tell people, "While you were sleeping, those with power were busy implementing their plans. Therefore, you have to wake up and take control of things and steer them in the 'right' direction." Well, the problem is, even if we could all agree on the 'right' direction, average people are too busy going about their lives; making money, raising families, and trying to enjoy what little free time they have. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to politics, most people don't have time to do anything but get angry at the state of things!

So then if We the People don't have time to run the country, what could we do to make sure our interests are being served? Well, for starters we would want to implement a Constitution with a Bill of Rights (done). Then we would want to have a democratic government, where the people vote for leaders and laws which would take an oath to follow and be in keeping with that Constitution (we've slipped up there). And finally, we would want to force our leaders to be personally responsible for all their actions- especially for breaching their oaths to follow that constitution, and for enacting lousy policies and decisions (need I say anything about how we're doing on that?).

We the People need to take personal responsibility for how we allow our leaders to run our country. When we justify wrongs as "lesser evils," and let our leaders get away with dire mistakes, we unintentionally participate as a collective in bringing about the resulting negative consequences.

As Hanna Arendt says, "When everyone is guilty, no one is guilty." And she is right on, because how can a minority in a society take collective responsibility and try to bring about changes, when the majority won't budge?

If we would like to see positive changes made in our country, then we need to start with ourselves. The best gift we could ever give our country is to be the type of person we would like to have as leaders, parents, children, friends, etc. That doesn't mean being perfect, but it means being able to look at our selves holistically, and honestly feel that we are satisfied with that person we see. In order to do that, we have to admit our shortcomings to ourselves, and take the personal responsibility for their consequences, and eventually for overcoming and improving upon them.

Becoming the person you would like to be probably won't fix your country- at least few Americans could repay our trillions in debt that way... but take head in the (probable) fact that doing so will do for your life what trillions would do for your country! That's because those people who neglect their personal responsibility neglect their ability to make positive self and life improvements.

All consciously made improvements require solutions. In order that one may find solutions, one must admit to and take responsibility for the problem. If it's your personal problem, then only you can fix it. If it's your collective problem, then only the collective can fix it. But in order that the collective may function properly, its parts must first be in order!