"Responsibility
begins
with the willingness to be
cause in the matter
of one's life. Ultimately, it is
a context
from which one chooses to live. Responsibility is not burden, fault,
praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. In responsibility, there is no
evaluation of good or bad, right or wrong. There is simply what's so,
and your stand. Being responsible starts with the willingness to deal
with a situation from the view of life that you are the generator of
what you do, what you have and what you are. That is not the truth. It
is
a place to stand.
No one can make you responsible, nor can you impose responsibility on
another. It is a grace you give yourself -
an empowering context
that leaves you with a say in the matter of life."
...
"The use of
force
is the negation of power. The person you refer to when you say 'I',
that person's weapon is
force.
Whatever you are other than the thing called 'I', that's power."
...
"Man is condemned to be
free;
because once thrown into
the world,
he is responsible for everything he does."
... Jean-Paul Sartre
I am indebted to Paige Rose PhD who contributed material for this
conversation.
When you
consider
what it is to be responsible, one possible view is that whether or not
you realize it, you're responsible. Whether or not you
get you are responsible, you're responsible - for your
life, for what you do, even for what happens to you. Whether or
not you take on responsibility, you're responsible. Whether or not you
accept responsibility, you're responsible. In this sense, being
responsible is something that life foists on you - which is as if to
say from the time you're born, you're condemned to be
responsible. Now look: where's the willingness in that? There's no
choice in it. There is no grace in it - nor in any of the above. What's
true too is there's no
freedom
or power in it either. No one can
force
you (and you can't
force
anyone) to take responsibility ie to be responsible. Claiming you're
forced
to take responsibility ie claiming you're
forced
to be responsible, rings hollow. You can't makepeople
be responsible.
Consider
this: how you make you being responsible powerful, is by not holding
you being responsible as "The Truth" (yes, you may have to
engage in the question "Why should I even
consider
that I'm responsible if it's not 'The Truth'?"). What makes you
being responsible powerful, even if it's not "The Truth", is holding it
as if it's
a place to stand,
as if it's a place to come from, as if it's
a context
for living, but not as if it's "The Truth" that you are responsible.
Try this on for size: what makes you being responsible powerful, is
taking the stand that you are responsible - whether it's true or
not. The power in you being responsible comes from the stand you
take that you're responsible. It doesn't come from you being
responsible like it's "The Truth" that you're responsible.
So is it "The Truth" that even if you don't take a stand that you're
responsible, that you're responsible anyway? Is it "The Truth",
realized or not, whether or not you take a stand that you're
responsible like a place to come from, like
a context for living,
that you're responsible anyway? Is it "The Truth" that we're condemned
to be responsible? When I first looked at this, my answer to whether or
not we're condemned to be responsible, was no: we're not condemned to
be responsible. Now that position has softened. Now it's I don't
know whether or not we are condemned to be responsible. We
may be. We may not be.
But whether we are condemned to be responsible or not, being
responsible as
a place to stand,
as a place to come from, as
a context for living,
even if it's not necessarily "The Truth", has willingness, choice,
grace,
freedom,
and power, whereas being responsible as if we are condemned to be
responsible, has none of the above. Instead, being condemned to be
responsible brings a certain automaticity to being responsible, whereas
being responsible as
a place to stand,
as a place to come from,
a context for living,
brings
presence of Self
to being responsible, the difference between which is as subtle as it's
profound.
Ever since I was in my early teen years, I've known that I'm
responsible for what I do, for what I make happen - and in particular,
for what I make happen to others.
ListeningWerner
underscores it. In addition,
listeningWerner
also gives me
access
to taking responsibility for what happens to me, a deeper cut on
my erstwhile take on what I'm responsible for. But it's more than that.
It's way more actually. It's
listeningWerner,
I also get I can take responsibility for generating my life
itself - like I'm its
sourcelike a possibility, like a stand, like a place to come from,
like
a context,
not like anything I'm condemned to be.
Postscript:
The
presentation,
delivery, and style of
Condemned To Be Responsible?
are all my own
work.
The ideas
recreated
in
Condemned To Be Responsible?
were first
originated,
distinguished, and articulated by
Werner Erhard.
