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In a previous article, I spoke of idiocy of a particular kind, that of people who are too self-centered to bother about the world around them. Of course, this kind of idiocy and selfishness also leads to mediocrity. Furthermore, there is a certain paradox in the phrase “the world around them”: it implies a certain separation between those people and their environment. This is obviously untrue. These people’s decisions and actions (or, rather, inaction), affect their environment, a fact which in turn affects them too. And still they remain apathetic and refuse to take responsibility.

The problem is, since we all occupy the same world – and in our era of globalization it is impossible to truly become isolated – even those who do think and act, and are responsible, are also affected.

Responsibility Starts with Awareness

• The non-smoker is affected by people smoking
• The vegan still has to deal with an environment collapsing partly because of the meat industry excesses…
• … and the same goes for the person who bicycles to work next to people driving SUVs for a 1-mile trip.
• The atheist has to fight for their right not to believe in an imaginary friend…
• …while their gay colleagues have to fight for their lives, their only crime being they were born that way – not unlike someone born with blond hair, a mole on their cheek, or without skin pigment.

The list above contains several points. Take a moment to think how you are feeling right now, having just read this list. If you’re feeling uncomfortable, offended, disagreeing, resisting, hold on to that feeling or thought for a moment. Don’t go away, think. Take responsibility. Perhaps you are a smoker, perhaps you like eating meat, perhaps you own a high-consumption vehicle, perhaps you are religious, or perhaps you hate gay people (or blond people; or people with moles on their cheeks; or albinos).

Guess what?

It’s not about forbidding you to think that way. But it is about forbidding you or limiting you to impose your thought (let alone your actions and their repercussions) on others.

Responsibility means repercussions

• If you like to smoke and don’t mind that it kills you, feel free. But do it in your own house, when you’re alone; not in a restaurant, not when your kids are around.
• Perhaps you like to eat meat (and don’t care about ethical considerations and animal rights). Then grow a chicken, kill it, and eat it. But don’t support an industry that pollutes the world the rest of us also live in.
• Assuming you don’t want to walk, bicycle, or take public transportation to your work, at least use a more environmentally friendly vehicle. If you like to drive a car that costs you more money, is harder to drive, more difficult to park, at least do it less often.
• If you’d rather not take responsibility for your own actions (hmm… I do see a pattern here) and prefer to leave it all on some invisible entity whose very existence defies reason and logical consistency, please, don’t force others to do the same. If you’re right and there is a hell, it’s them going to it, not you. Laugh silently at their expense and let them be.
• If someone loves (how threatening!) people of the same sex, let them do that. They are not asking you to do the same. If you are so confident in your faith sexual orientation, surely you will not falter as a result of what they are doing? People might also ask you not to judge them by the color of their hair or their skin, or by whether they were born with moles on their cheeks.