I understand the rejection of the mantle of guilt by those who have favored environmental policies and who have never supported deregulation of the oil drilling industry, but I have been disturbed by the trend to disavow any responsibility and blame it all on the failings of government. The litany goes something like this: the government has failed to promote the development of economically priced electric cars, or other environmentally sound vehicles; I would buy such a car if it were available at a reasonable price.
Are all of us guilty for the oil spill? I don't think so but do we share the responsibility? Oh yes. We share a collective responsibility for the common good; it is our refusal to step up to the plate and accept this responsibility that leaves us constantly bemoaning the failures of government. We can't fix anything because it's not our fault; it's the government's fault, " I drive a small car that gets good mileage so I'm not responsible for our over dependence on oil." Poppycock!
Our biggest failure is our inability to accept individual responsibility to do all that we possibly can to promote the common good. Who is responsible for fixing all of these problems if we sit on our collective asses denying responsibility for the arc of ills that bedevil us because we personally didn't vote for GWB or some other incompetent leader? It's not about what you didn't do, the question to ask yourself is what have I done, and what am I willing to do to improve this world that I share with the rest of creation?
Merely sitting back and shaking your head in disgust and dismay is not a solution. Announcing which candidates you didn't support is not a solution. Declaring that you personally recycle and drive a small car is not a solution. If you aren't actively and consistently taking steps to effect change, then you're useless and all of your disgust with the status quo is self-indulgent.
Get involved! Join organizations that advocate for change and become an activist. Know who your federal and state legislators are. Call, write, email and let them know what you support and what you are against. Collect signatures and send petitions from voters who agree with you. Make certain to be informed on all issues in elections and vote! Volunteer to pass out information, drive people to the polls, get the word out about the issues. Effecting change is hard work but nothing has ever been changed by declaring your lack of personal responsibility and bemoaning the inadequacies of government.
Government is only as good as we make it. So what have you done lately to contribute to the common good?
Sheria,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the notion that individuals should do what they can. We have to find our own level of involvement – I am not well suited to direct activism, so I contribute what money I can to campaigns and issues I find worthwhile. It’s better than nothing.
One other thing I find worth doing is to speak my tiny dino mind, both online and off. Everyone is part of and can to some extent affect – to however limited an extent – the climate of opinion about social, political, and environmental issues. William Blake said, “Always be willing to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.” Base individuals depend and thrive upon the silence of others – people do the most brazen and sociopathic things on the expectation that no one will have the courage to even to take notice, much less stop them. It’s a bit like that in the realm of public discourse, too. I’m not talking about shouting at imbeciles – an activity in which I find little satisfaction. But if you consistently speak rationally, accurately and without too much hopelessness or cynicism about what’s going on, you’re helping to maintain or improve the level of discourse within your own circle of family, friends, and colleagues. You’re providing a fresh, clean, healthy alternative discursive environment to the foetid locker-room that is today’s public sphere.
If there’s one thing “we libs” are often guilty of, it’s assuming that others agree with us just because we’re usually right and conservatives (dunderheads that they are) are usually wrong. At the society-wide level, mediocrity and shallow, impoverished, herdlike thinking (failure to see even the most obvious alternatives, to consider an issue from another angle, to find a glaring flaw in the journalistic or political consensus statements, etc.) are the norm: it’s a good thing if you can speak and write in a manner that counteracts this norm. It’s especially vital, I think, to make sure young people know that the cruelty and dishonesty coming from the far right is by no means the only perspective available to them.
One thing that’s at least hopeful is that even if “the average American” is unlikely to get involved in the sort of activism that would require a strong commitment of time and energy, the new social media and technology make it easy to contribute to a good cause: witness the response to recent calls for relief funds to help the victims of Haiti’s earthquake. So there is some genuine good will out there just waiting to get hooked up to the relatively few committed individuals (medical experts, etc.) who can actually help on the ground – not everyone is a hopelessly selfish, leering right-wing moron who gloats over others’ suffering. A way of taking some responsibility (in the sense Rocky outlined – i.e. responsibility in the sense of owning up to the reality of a situation in which you have a stake whether you caused the problem or not) for the Gulf oil disaster would be an organized relief effort of this sort to protect the marshes and help treat animals in distress. If everyone just waits for BP (or the government, frankly) to deal adequately with the developing situation, they’re evidently going to be waiting for a long, Long, LONG time. Americans might as well acknowledge the fact and be willing to spend some money to help out in a timely manner.
On the subject of alienation between a people and their government, I recall that Schiller's Sixth Letter from Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man is very good.
In praise of Sheria's Law: Pardon the word play, but Sheria's post is a healthy and important reminder that no matter how demoralized we may feel about the current situation, we have too much to lose. As consumers and citizens, there is always a shared responsibility no matter how tough things get.
ReplyDeleteTime for Octopus to pull himself up by the tentacles, wash the sludge off with Dawn, and get to work.