Responsibility.....

[Light Travelling]

The trouble with mankind is that no-one wants to accept responsibility for humanities actions.

There are many who want to blame all the bad in the world on god, they then follow on from that and conclude that if god created all the bad then god doesn’t exist or if there is bad in the world, it proves god does not exist. Neither of these positions are exclusive logical conclusions.

Then there are atheists who want to blame all the bad in the world on religion (they cant blame it on god because he doesn’t exist, so they choose the next best thing – religion). But this is the same psychological process as above, blame is shifted to an external ‘responsible’ source. Religion is held as a thing in itself (almost like god) that can be blamed for the worlds ills.

There are then theists that hold that their version of god is the only way and blame all the worlds ills on non-believers or on other religions. Or theists who blame an external devil for all the evil in the world. Often such beliefs do not even hold with their own scripture – or at least take their scriptures selectively.

But no-one wants to accept that all the worlds ills are committed by us – by people exactly like us. The first steps of personal development is to accept our culpability and past mistakes. Our first steps of improving society and the world must be to do the same. As long as we go on trying to blame each other or different religions or politics our collective lot will never improve.

Maybe there is a god maybe not, that is not the point of this thread. The point is we seem to all be trapped in a blame culture that seems to be focused on and between religions and the areligious at the moment. (or most of us anyway, there are a few free from this but not many). Maybe we always have been.

You can remove religion or anything else from the equation, but while the blame 'mind set' still exists across humanity, other reasons will always be found to blame someone else for all the worlds wrongs.


Thoughts ?

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Any of us might say with some honesty that he has never done anything seriously wrong, for example a deed that an Abrahamist would say would doom him to hell. But we do wrong by inaction. We are all bound together into the expanding community of civilization. We all are born with a responsibility to keep it functioning so that it doesn't collapse and dump us into a Neolithic village lifestyle.

That means it's our duty, as we get older and hopefully wiser, to fulfill our role as the "elders" of the community. Be active, speak up, use our own experience and learning to help the young do a better job of running the place than we did.

Therefore I do feel justified and "wise" in placing blame on the members of certain religious sects that teach that what goes on in mortal life is just a "comma"--to use the vernacular of the proudly illiterate--and that all attention should be focused on the afterlife. These people are working to undo civilization.

But for everyone else, the vast majority of the people, the duty is clear. Be an elder. Don't just let life become lazier and more self-centered as you get older. Care about what is going on and do your best to affect it.

 

[Louisos]

I am 13 years old. Now before u start to patronize me because of the connotation that comes with that statement, I'm a pretty smart 13 year old. I used to live in Northern Ireland (don't ask it's complicated), I saw people blown up and I, unlike alot of other people TRULY understood why. It is because of the traits that set human beings apart from any other known thing to exist on this planet.

The power to blame

Deceptiveness

Ability to silence any form of conscience we have.

It is true that everybody blames each other and wants war, to keep people from questioning them, a bit like stalin did in Siberia. However the point of this thread is, though a good discussion point rather flawed. You say that when humans take resbonsibility for their actions the world will improve (effectively), we should have done this 200 years ago. The only thing humans can do to improve the earth is to eradicate ourselves. Because people will never say they have one something bad, because in their mind this poses the question,"Are we the greatest thing on the plant after all?"

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

You say that when humans take responsibility for their actions the world will improve (effectively), we should have done this 200 years ago.

Why do you think it would not help if we just start now? Why do you think it would have been any easier, or any more effective, to have done it back then?

 

[spidergoat]

There's nothing wrong with laziness, if everyone were lazy, there would be fewer problems.

But in essence I agree, the situation we live in starts at the level of the individual. But what if I am good and problems persist, and I can point to a certain group or ideology that is responsible for the problem?

 

[candy]

This reminds me of the old saying "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem". Pretending that an injustice did not happen or can be explained away allows injustice to thrive desensitizing people to the suffering of others thereby corrupting society.
The blame game is definitely one of the biggest problems facing humanity but eventually you run out of other people to blame and have to take a long hard look at the person in the mirror. I suspect this reflective state maybe part of growing old gracefully. You lose the volatile exuberance of youth for a more contemplative existence.

 

[falcon22]

The problem with responsibility is that humanity is in no way responsible for cancer, genetic defomities, earth quakes, hornines, mental illness, or even addictions. What, you think we're actually responsible for this? Stop drinking LSD and start thinking.

 

[falcon22]

I am 13 years old. Now before u start to patronize me because of the connotation that comes with that statement, I'm a pretty smart 13 year old. I used to live in Northern Ireland (don't ask it's complicated), I saw people blown up and I, unlike alot of other people TRULY understood why. It is because of the traits that set human beings apart from any other known thing to exist on this planet.

The power to blame

Deceptiveness

Ability to silence any form of conscience we have.

It is true that everybody blames each other and wants war, to keep people from questioning them, a bit like stalin did in Siberia. However the point of this thread is, though a good discussion point rather flawed. You say that when humans take resbonsibility for their actions the world will improve (effectively), we should have done this 200 years ago. The only thing humans can do to improve the earth is to eradicate ourselves. Because people will never say they have one something bad, because in their mind this poses the question,"Are we the greatest thing on the plant after all?"

What, you think that if monkeys or bears had ability to use conventional and nuclear weapons as well as us humans, that they wouldn't start wars? What sets us humans apart is not that we can lay blame, it's that we can use manipulate technology and that we have developed a system of social standards and cultural symbols. That's what makes us different.

 

[scorpius]

The trouble with mankind is that no-one wants to accept responsibility for humanities actions.

true,many people like to blame GreeseBurger joints for getting fat and such,
and religion for all the evil,imo evil comes from stupidity and religious people are kept stupid and unable to decide for themselves whats wrong or right,
whatever gods word is (as interpreted by their preachers) is the Truth that day ,even if it includes killing babies,
thats what I find wrong with religious nuts.

You can remove religion or anything else from the equation, but while the blame 'mind set' still exists across humanity, other reasons will always be found to blame someone else for all the worlds wrongs.

removing religion and replacing it with scientific education would be the first step humanity can do to make people smarter.
removing money and giving everyone who wants security a lifetime job would surely got rid of all the greed which makes people steal, cheat,kill and destroy the environment in some idiotic rush to make millions,
ask any millionare how much money they need or spend every year and you'll find out they dont need million $$ to be happy anyway,so why chase after it like crazy??
I like to say,even if you win the rat race youre still a rat!
world without money,hmmm where did we hear that one.. Star Trek society anyone?
it will most likely happen in Europe first, Americans are too set in their greed is good ideology.