Responsibility

Responsibility

An Essay

by

Desago

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Responsibility

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How can you define responsibility? Are you a responsible person? What is your attitude towards irresponsible people? Can you remember an accidents that happened because of someone being irresponsible? These are questions you need to ask yourself to accept your own responsibility.

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Responsibility defined.

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1. the state or position of being responsible

2. a person or thing for which one is responsible

3. the ability or authority to act or decide on one's own, without supervision

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This is how I view responsibility. Responsibility is your birth right. Responsibility for the responsible, the more you accept the more that will be given to you. With responsibility goes authority to direct and take the necessary action to ensure success.

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Being responsible refers to our ability to make decisions that serve our own interests and the interests of others. We first need to accept responsibility for ourselves before we can be responsible for others. In learning to be more responsible it is important that we know our limitations. It does not matter how smart we are, there is only so much responsibility that a person can handle. It is also important to remember that we are not responsible for things that are out of our control, for example, how other people feel or how they react to ourselves or others. Sharing responsibility for both success and failure can lead to increased responsibility to oneself and others. When you hear the word "responsibility," what do you think of first? Many people think of the word BLAME, as in, "Whose responsibility is this?" or “Who is responsible for this?” I think of responsibility as seizing what's in front of you, exerting choice, and taking control. The real meaning of responsibility is the ability to respond. It's going out and creating what you want through personal choices. The responsibility that each of us has is that we are completely, 100% responsible for how our lives turn out.

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It's a free choice, to accept your responsibility. I don't choose to keep some "duty" for eternity that's my own choice; and I was responsible for accepting the duty, nobody laid it on me. To some being responsible means taking care of, and raising a family, to others it means being active in political campaigns and voting, and to some it means taking responsibility for their own actions. Society will also expect you to be responsible for your actions and supplies. Responsible people look to the long-term goals, and not always what is easy or for what provides immediate satisfaction. If the people in our society took responsibility for all their actions, our society as a whole would be better. People are not born with a sense of responsibility, they have to learn it and accept it. Negative attitudes are very common. But you can pick it up and lay it down. Good and responsible people do exist in the world.

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There are many events in a person's life that have an impact so large, that the person' life is forever changed. Hopefully most such events are positive, and help him in his life. However, there is also the undeniable fact that bad things happen. It is not uncommon to hear someone wondering aloud why an event took place. A person's actions come into question, and it is wondered what the person's motivation was. Once we start questioning the events of our lives, we begin to test out different theories that we have heard over time. "It was fate," “My destiny” or "It is part of God's plan," or other theories which attempt to put some meaning and reasoning behind events in our lives, this how ever takes away human responsibility. Human's also begin to wonder how it is that their actions are determined. Aside from these various explanations, philosopher's have created explanations which can tell the story of human action. There are four main positions that one can maintain. Hard determinism, compatibilism, indeterminism, and skepticism.

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Man has always struggled with the issue of human responsibility, even the great

philosopher Aristotle admitted that there were cases in which he felt it was too difficult to either find a person responsible or not responsible for their actions. Therefore, we need a structured set of characteristics to describe Human Responsibility.

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Three characteristics of Human Responsibility

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1)      Whether or not the person causally contributed to the event happening, either passively or actively.

2)      A person to be held responsible is whether he or she knew or should have known that the event would happen.

3)      Free Will

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Learning the Skill of Self -Responsibility

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There comes a moment in your life that you have to step up and claim it as your own. “I put myself here. I created this world that now seems upturned.” You have to finally claim that ‘personal responsibility' for your life. Taking this step required a

skill that needs to be learned by many individuals. The acceptance of inner

acknowledgment that we are solely responsible for our choices in life, even when

life deals us a bad hand, will give us an upper hand. Taking control of that bad situation frees us to seek out and accept help for ourselves.

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In taking on this task we must ask ourselves this simple question, how rational

are we in dealing with the part we played in being who we are today? And if not,

who is the responsible party? Why are we so programmed to blame?

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Alexander Graham Bell (1827) said,

“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with- a man is what he makes of himself. In entering adulthood we chose how our self-esteem develops, but instead we seem to always have that, if it was not for her or if I could only go back and do things different. We must learn to work out our anger, hostility and depression over those haunting ghosts and focus on our now. Who we are and where we are going with this life.”

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Removing Blame

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As I have already stated Blame is the name of the game. We have this tendency to shove off our responsibility to those around us, the fall guy, the scapegoat, who can we put in our place, to catch hell for this, who is the villain here? Christians readily place blame on atheists, on Satan, on those who do not accept their deity of chose. Republicans place blame on the Democrats, because of political motives. Injured workers place blame on the insurance companies, the list goes on and on. So how do we as a society remove the blame?

1)      Accept our part, our responsibility, of the situation, did we either passively or actively contributed to this event? If we are in the wrong then promptly admit it, without trying to hide behind our shame.

2)      Let go of the guilt of powerlessness. If we did not play a part in the situation, if we are not directly or indirectly responsible for this situation, why feel guilty about it, other than being powerless or not in control, there is no shame in admitting things are out of your limited range of control.

3)      Control is an illusion, you can’t control how other people think or feel, you can’t make someone accept your point of view, without manipulation of the situation, but manipulation removes responsibility, both yours and theirs from the situation.

4)      Admit your own short comings, your own limitations, as a human being and embrace your birth right of being a responsible person.