personal responsibility IS the good of the whole

In a return email to Brett in reference to the one mentioned below, here are my thoughts:

I can see that “the good of the whole” is a slippery slope. but i think what i’m talking about is less about finding one person or group of people to decide what the good of the whole is, and instead more on an individual level: taking personal responsibility for your actions and judging whether the impact of your actions will negatively affect others to a degree that it overshadows your personal benefit.

As an example, if I want a new car (for personal use) and I decide to buy a gas guzzling Hummer or Suburban or the like, assuming I have not been living under a rock, I understand that these things get horrible gas mileage and spew more toxic fumes than most other cars, per mile driven, and i also understand that if i were to be in a wreck in one of these things, i’d have a decent chance of surviving whereas if the other driver was in a normal size car, i may very well kill them. so do i put my personal desire for an enormous honkin’ vehicle (i was trying to think of compelling reasons why someone would want to own one but came up dry) over the safety of other drivers and the impact on the air quality? tons of people do. some of them have good reasons (service vehicle; haul stuff a lot; etc.), but huge numbers of them do not (and having three kids who have band and soccer is NOT a good reason to own one… that can be easily done in a sedan, trust me)

all i’m hoping for is that people will stop and think about what impact their actions (any and all of their actions) will have on themselves, others, and society as a whole, and try to do what’s right. true, “what’s right” is a matter of perception and varies by individual, but i like to think that there are some basic tenets of “right” and “wrong” that stem from simply being a human being.

unfortunately, there are so many people trying to get a free lunch, who feel like the world owes them something, and who will use every opportunity to take advantage of other people in order to claw their way ahead, that i’m personally experiencing a paradigm shift to a more realistic belief that humans are NOT basically good… i wouldn’t necessarily say evil, but that we’re basically greedy, selfish, violent animals. this is not news to me; it’s just disappointing because it’s proven to me time and time again.

i’m not saying i have the answers; in fact i have no idea what the hell to do. i’m just trying to explain what i think is broken about our society and government. i don’t think that most people think for themselves enough, and i sure don’t want to do it for them. i just wish that they WOULD. i don’t know how to fix that, or if it can be.

Brett said

“You increase the goodness in the world by increasing the goodness at the individual level.”

absolutely! that would certainly do the trick. we just need to figure out how to do that. i think that getting people to take responsibility for their actions on a more regular basis would be a gigantic step in the right direction.