The Third Principle: RESPONSIBILITY

RESPONSIBILITY, the third principle

With Ethics as our basic principle and when we live with integrity, we expect a strong character of the people. The third and closely related to the previous principles is responsibility. Responsibility is the state, fact, or position of being accountable to somebody or for something. Responsible citizens participate in government, church, volunteers and memberships of voluntary associations. This can be displayed in advocacy for various causes, such as “political, economic, civil, environmental or quality of life issues.”

Jennifer Self, sees the importance of responsibility as paramount to the success of democracy. "By engaging in civic responsibility, citizens ensure and uphold certain national values enshrined in the Constitution. Those values or duties include justice, freedom, equality, diversity, authority, privacy, due process, property, participation, truth, patriotism, human rights, rule of law, tolerance, mutual assistance, self restraint and self respect. Schools teach civic responsibility to students with the goal to produce responsible citizens and active participants in community and government."

On a personal level, we often observe that irresponsible persons are being overly dependent on others for recognition, approval, affirmation, and acceptance; chronically hostile, angry, or depressed over how unfairly they have been or are being treated; fearful about ever taking a risk or making a decision; overwhelmed by disabling fears. These usually leads to being unsuccessful at the enterprises they take on in life; unsuccessful in personal relationships; emotionally or physically unhealthy; addicted to unhealthy substances, such as the abuse of alcohol, drugs, food, or unhealthy behavior such as excessive gambling, shopping, sex, smoking, work, etc. Furthermore, over responsible and guilt ridden in their need to rescue and enable others in their life will disable them to develop trust or to feel secure with others and resist vulnerability.

To be responsible we need to let go of our sense of over responsibility for others. We also need to protect and nurture our health and emotional well being by taking preventive health oriented steps of structuring your life with time management, stress management, confronting fears, and burnout prevention. Moreover, we should take an honest inventory of our strengths, abilities, talents, virtues, and positive points; developing positive, self-affirming, self-talk scripts to enhance our personal development and growth. As responsible persons, we have to let go of blame and anger toward those in our past who did the best they could, given the limitations of their knowledge, background, and awareness. Let’s work out anger, hostility, pessimism, and depression over past hurts, pains, abuse, mistreatment, and misdirection.

A responsible person acknowledges that he or she is solely responsible for the choices in his/her life and does not blame others for the choices s/he had made. Instead, a responsible citizen points the finger of responsibility back to him/herself and away from others when you s/he is discussing the consequences of his/her actions; not feeling sorry for the ``bum deal'' one has been handed but taking hold of your life and giving it direction and reason.

How much do we train our children, students, citizens to be responsible? We have to provide learning opportunities for our young ones about civic responsibility. Through service learning, citizens participate in projects to help or serve the needs of other people. By getting their hands dirty and actually doing work, citizens experience the value and impact of giving to people and learn to be productive members of society. Volunteering is a form of civic responsibility, which involves the giving of time or labor without the expectation of monetary compensation. Many people volunteer through local churches, Red Cross, fire fighting, etc. Volunteering allows citizens the opportunity to share their skills and talents as well as the privilege to learn new skills while helping those in need of assistance.

Daniel B. Klein, Associate Professor of Economics,Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053 defines "individual responsibility" as accountability; more specifically, it means government-administered systems of accountability for citizens. Both liberty and individual responsibility, then, pertain to the citizens' relationships with government. Hence, one citizen's crime against another is not an encroachment on liberty, and the practices of a philanthropic organization, even if arbitrary, are not departures from individual responsibility.

A blogger’s insight is worth mentioning: “Political Correctness, Deconstructionism, Trans-National Progressivism, Liability mania, Crime and Punishment, Terrorism, Welfare, Gun Control, Media Bias, Affirmative Action, Abortion, Education Reform, Social Engineering ‘- all of it’- will divide people according to their idea of Responsibility.

He/she also contends that it has been our long, bloody and noble history to rise to this idea of individual responsibility; because if it is indeed correct, then it ‘- alone’- is the liberator of ourselves as a species. Individual responsibility frees us from our past, from the fate of our birth, from the millennia of class and caste and of failed ideas that have kept so many in bondage for so long. If we indeed do have the ability to control our own selves, then we can free our own minds from the river of history and experience.

Finally, “there is a single litmus that does indeed separate the nation and the world into two opposing camps, and that when you examine where people will fall on the countless issues that affect our society, this alone is the indicator that will tell you how they will respond. The indicator is Responsibility.”