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'It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.' - Josiah Stamp
As if other people were responsible for our conduct. Hiding behind grievances, governments or histories. Wasting energy talking about poor school provision. Rather than grieving its loss and focusing our energies on educating our own kids. We are self-creating beings. Who have responsibility for what we make of our lives. An existentialist philosophical stance (Guignon, 2021.)
"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell." - Oscar Wilde
My emotions in writing this blog included both sadness and anger. In particular, that people still struggle to take personal responsibility. In response, this blog will detail how to both dodge, and take, personal responsibility. We begin with two of my favourite dodges : holding an inaccurate view of ourselves and procrastination.
Holding an inaccurate view of ourselves and procrastination
One way we can dodge personal responsibility is by holding an inaccurate view of ourselves. One part attracted to a narcissistic sense of ourselves. Seducing ourselves into believing we are more important than other people. So exempt from taking all our responsibility (Ripley & Ward, 2023.) Another part may believe we are fundamentally worse than anyone else. So whilst some people say ‘if you [take the personal responsibility to] speak your truth, your tribe will be those who hang around.’ This part of you may say ‘what if I speak my truth and no one hangs around?’ So we can avoid doing so. As if our actual selves were unsuited to take personal responsibility. We can also dodge personal responsibility by procrastinating.
Ruminating if only we wrote more, thought more, or found the perfect way to be then we would act. Choosing avoidance over hypothesis testing. As if any decision did not involve significant risk. Whereas students of risk will recognise that the past is often the best predictor of the future but that, often, the past is also a poor predictor of the future. This means individuals may only discover which things are possible by trying to do them. So in taking personal responsibility, we have to accept the consequences of our decisions. Both known and unknown (Dungan et al., 2015.) Next, I suggest, another hurdle to taking personal responsibility is fully understanding the fairness/loyalty dilemma.
Fairness vs loyalty
Fairness and loyalty are both well established moral values. Which of these values we give priority leads to different conclusions about personal responsibility. As adults we must consciously decide which action is most responsible. Guided by both our moral code and emotions. Accepting that our actions may be viewed as betrayal. In fact, sometimes, betrayal is necessary for things to change. So deciding whether to be loyal or fair, is actually a choice of who we betray.
'Betrayal is a terrible thing, but without betrayal there can be no development....In betraying someone (or something) one is protecting someone (or something) else. And that someone or something else may be – in fact is likely to be – of real value' (Phillips, 2012.)
Next, I suggest, the time frame of our thoughts can affect how much responsibility we take.
Here and now
'If you spend too much time in the past you are going to get depressed, and if you spend too much time in the future you are going to get anxious, and the goal is to try to live in the present' - (Group, 2021.)
Taking personal responsibility seems to involve responding to the challenges we face in the here and now. This is because we can over indulge in congratulations, or condemnations, about the past. Alternatively fantasising about ideal or terrible futures. Distracting ourselves from the responsibility we can take in the present.
This is another dodge of mine. I needed to learn and move on. Identifying my unconscious patterns and implicit biases (Ratliff, & Smith, 2021.) Making decisions after a reasonable information gathering process. In this way, taking responsibility becomes an opportunity to do something different. That can be exciting as well as scary. How then to summarise what taking personal responsibility involves?
To take personal responsibility, sense, then decide, the way you want to be. Then be that way
So if we are to take our personal responsibility. I suggest, we need to habitually sense, then decide, the way we want to be. Then act that way. This means taking personal responsibility involves judgement. A judgement we make and are accountable for. From this perspective life is a serious business. Our decisions will be consequential for ourselves and other people. Whatever we do cannot be undone. At the very least, we have to live with and answer to, ourselves. Whatever we do. That may be hard enough. This way of conscious living is not easy. Instead, as Auden (1927) suggests :
'A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear:
Although I love you, you will have to leap; Our dream of safety has to disappear.'
References
Auden, W. H. (1927). Leap before you look. Collected Shorter Poems, 1957. https://web.mit.edu/cordelia/www/Poems/Leap_Before_you_look.html
Dungan, J., Waytz, A., & Young, L. (2015). The psychology of whistleblowing. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 129-133. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352250X15001839
Eliot, G. (2015). Middlemarch: a study of provincial life. ; Chicago / Turabian
Group. (2021, January 1). Booty call [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0tHswsB9Wg
Guignon, C.(1998). Existentialism. In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor and Francis. Retrieved 12 Nov. 2022, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/existentialism/v-1. doi:10.4324/9780415249126-N020-1
Ratliff, K. A., & Smith, C. T. (2021). Lessons from two decades of Project Implicit. A Handbook of Research on Implicit Bias and Racism. APA Books. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
Phillips, A. (2012). Judas' Gift. London Review of Books, 34(1), 14. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n01/adam-phillips/judas-gift
Ripley, B., & Ward, S., (2023) Pride, Seven Deadly Psychologies, (BBC Radio 4)
n.b. I have also collated a list of other free resources on general health I have found helpful. You can find them here : CLICK HERE
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