| Responsibility | |||||||||
| "Responsibility." An individual "being responsible" seems to be one of our nation's virtues. It has an implied connection with the "American way." The main ideology that is connected with "responsibility," is the ideology that we are "free." Being free implies that we have "free-will," which is the ability to make choices freely. If we make choices, then we are responsible for the choices that we decide on. Thus, "responsibility" is within the act of "being free." Responsibility is very ambiguous and means many things to different individuals. So we must first define "responsibility" and then a better analysis can be conducted using this definition. "Responsibility is the act of being "responsible." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2006) defines "responsibility" as,"b(1): liable to be called to account as the primary cause, motive or agent... (2): being the cause or explanation" (p. 1062). This definition sums up what most of us think of when we hear, read, or think of the idea of what it is to be responsible. There seems to be one important aspect left out of this definition that is also connected with one being responsible. That aspect is "intentionality." If some action occurs by accident or as a result of coercion, then the person who performed the action is not truly responsible. An accident is an action that has an unintended result. To take responsibility of an accident or as a victim of coercion is not the same as taking responsibility for some act that was intentionally performed. It is the act of an individual merely being the main agent of an action with no choice at the time to do otherwise. "Freedom" and "responsibility" are nice thoughts, good ideas, and entrancing ideologies, but that is all that they are. They are mere fantasies that are based from untruths of how the world really is. |
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