Personal Responsibility

            You hear online and on TV about rights. Gay rights, Trans-rights, bathroom rights, immigrant rights, and the list goes on and on. Yet with all this talk about rights, no one is talking about responsibility. It would seem that society has moved away from personal responsibility and toward the idea that everything you want is a right. Responsibility can mean a lot of work but with that work comes a sense of meaning. It gives your life a purpose. In taking on this responsibility helps relieve some of the suffering that is life so that it not only makes your life better but the life of those around you.

            It seems lately that our society has moved away from responsibility and toward rights. With this move people have increasingly been calling for government to not only guarantee those rights but to provide them as well. You can hear people say things like ‘everyone has a right to housing and because there are people without homes the government needs to pay for them to have housing.’ Yet no one is talking about personal responsibility. They never ask the question, why does that person not have housing or do they even want housing?

            Instead they go and fight for the homeless person as if they are a child that needs someone to talk for them. It would seem this focus on rights just seeks to take care of everyone’s suffering. To some degree I respect that goal but it also takes away someone’s freedom when you do everything for them. Responsibility on the other hand gives you a sense of purpose. Among millennials (of which I am a member, just barely) you’ll have notice #adulting being used. It is often used when someone spends time paying bills or buys a house or generally takes care of some responsibility. When you do those tasks it give your life meaning. It is important to have responsibility because it is through responsibility that we not only give meaning to our life but we reduce suffering in life. If you take enough responsibility you can even help reduce suffering in the life of those around you.

            An example of responsibility reducing suffering would be if you have the responsibility of owning a house. Being able to take on that responsibility means you have a spare room for your friend when they go through a break up or need a place to stay. The more you are able to take on the better off you’ll be and the better off those around you will be. This idea manifests itself to me on a daily bases. My wife runs a dog rescue and the added responsibility in our lives has made it so that we were able to help a friend when her dog got sick. It all turned out well, but if we had never taken on the responsibility of the rescue and our friend had not taken on the responsibility of volunteering for the rescue we would never have met. We would not have been able to help or even known what to do to help.

            Life is suffering, we all suffer in life one way or another. It is through responsibility that we can relieve suffering in our own life and in the lives of those around us. We need to stop demanding that our government or someone else give us stuff (rights) and start taking the responsibility of getting what we want ourselves. In doing so you’ll give your life meaning and help bring meaning to other people’s lives. With this meaning it helps make all the suffering in life worth it as well as help reduce the suffering we all face on a daily bases. The more responsibility you are able to take on the more suffering you can help reduce in others as well. So pick up that burden of responsibility and stumble forward with it, give your life meaning, and help make life a bit better, not only for yourself but for those around you too.