Evolution of Personal Responsibility?

Is our culture evolving into one where each person will have more choice and take more (appropriate) responsibility? Where are we on the curve, if so - and what can we do to further it?

I obviously assume it's happening, and I think it's a good thing.

I started pondering this question after beginning research on my novel - it's historical, covers such topics as democracy and slavery (and their interesting intersection in history). Reading books like Joseph Ellis' Founding Brothers, and biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Beaumarchais, the Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, have made me believe that they must have perceived, and tried actively to foster - this growing sense of responsibility.

What do you think?

Comments

[Julie Gomoll]

I'm not sure I'm convinced our culture, in general, *is* evolving in this direction. Within certain areas, yes. The tech industry seems to be embracing open source and transparency, at least many newer and smaller companies are. But are the big, staid, blue-chip companies also headed in this direction?

Certainly the US government isn't helping any. I think we've backslid on the curve there. The architects of a disastrous war get medals, and proponents of failed polices get promoted.

I worry that the shift, if there is one, toward more personal responsibility is something we're seeing in our small pocket of the universe, but that it's not really happening on a grander scale.

Where are you seeing it happening?

I'm curious, too, as to how you define "our culture". High tech? Corporate? Western? American? Entrepreneurial?

[Firecat Sue]

Our culture, great question, Julie. I meant Western, developed world culture. But - I have a hard time distinguishing where that line is. Certainly the part of the culture I have the most direct experience with is the web industry, technorati, well-educated, mostly American crowd. That's my frame of reference, and my blind spot :)

I'm talking BIG picture here, though - the 300-year trend of Western civilization. I think that democracy *tries* to give individuals more personal responsibility, and the degrees to which we embrace that responsibility, or abdicate it, are telling, but I think there's a general uptrend.

I see the adoption of public media to engage in public conversation as an expression of that. I saw the adoption of desktop publishing by so many as another expression of it.

I see the rise of entrepreneurialism, and the decline of the paternal corporate model, as another expression of it.

One thing I learned within the big, staid, blue-chip company I used to work for was - change happens there, but it's at a pace that makes it hard for me to perceive, let alone trust. Now that I'm on the outside, I see that positive change is, in fact happening. The closer I was, the harder it was for me to see.

I love being a consultant to that same organization. Since I have contact with multiple departments, I'm often better informed than those inside. And I'm better able to see the change I longed for, and spot the overall trends. Good for me, good for the company.

I agree that as far as our government goes, as a nation we've backslid on the responsibility thing.