Thought leader and writer, Seth Godin wrote, in his blog What Comes After Trust?, “Civil society as we know it is dependent on identity and responsibility. A person does something and owns the consequences. This requirement of identity leads to the dynamic of the free market that we call trust.”
I agree with Godin’s assessment. We need trust in our culture for it to function well. However, his premise for trust is personal responsibility. “A person does something and owns the consequences.” People don’t own the consequences anymore.
In our current cultural context seldom, if ever, does a person own their choices. People are free to accept no blame. No responsibility. No consequences. In fact, we live in a time when irresponsible behavior is empowered.
People are free to make choices without ever having to count the cost. And when the cost is counted they don’t have to pay it anyway. A person owns no accountability. Individuals have no consequences. Instead we live in a culture that engenders shifting. We shift blame to something, or someone, else.
It is never an individual’s fault. It is the sins of history. It is the unfairness of self-centered social construct. It is the person who can help, but refuses to do so. It is the perception that someone ought not to have what I am unable to gain.
What we fail to grasp is when we allow an erosion, really lack of expectation, of personal responsibility we have degraded human dignity. When we empower people in the avoidance of consequences we lessen obligation. When we allow people to shift blame we communicate a lack of strength to find a way through.
Jesus said, “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’” (Luke 14: 28-30).
Yes the Jesus who many claim taught unbridled tolerance says to be responsible. Count the cost. Know what you can finish. Be accountable for what you do.
I have said often, ‘freedom without responsibility is anarchy.’ If you disagree that is fine. But give it a moment. Look around to the segments of our society that want freedom, but refuse the inherent responsibility that goes with it.
Personal responsibility is a lost art. It has been sacrificed on the altar of victimization. It has been eroded by the drip, drip of it’s not you, but them.
When we help people have the courage to say, “It’s on me. It was my fault. It was my choice. I take the consequences.” We will be on the long road of recapturing a responsible society.