When did the virtue of Personal Responsibility become a piece of garbage easily tossed away into the nearest trash receptacle? Are parents no longer teaching their children the importance of owning up to their actions, and the consequences they bring? Growing up on a grimy street in New York City, my brother and I knew there would be hell to pay if we did something stupid - if we made a bad choice. Our parents told us, our grandparents told us - our teachers reminded us to think before we acted, our pastor told us about accepting the consequences of our choices.
Every day we make choices, both simple and complex. But when did we stop thinking before choosing? How many people do you know who blame past events for their present choices? Who refuse to see their own will at play, instead blaming the will of another who did something to them years ago. Or perhaps they blame "Society" or a bad upbringing - heaven forbid they look in a mirror or recognize that the hand causing the harm is attached to their arm.
Our world is suffering from the lack of personal responsibility people in today's society are expressing - this refusal to acknowledge their role in the destruction of our planet is hampering any efforts to reverse that damage. An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour are great wake up calls that there's a problem - but if no one is willing to fess up to their part of the cause, is there really any way to fix it - or are we already doomed?
2 comments:
I agree with you completely. Taking personal responsibility has been (and still is) a hard lesson I am trying to learn. My mother did the same thing and unlearning that behavior has been very hard. It wasn't until college that I even realized that my problems where mine and not the rest of the world's.
Huzzah and well said.
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