Responsibility: Who dares to bare it?

An existence devoid of problems is not one that any human can say they have experienced. There are many maxims, theories and claims about what causes or eliminates our problems, yet none seem to be universally applicable. Some problems, however, can be universally applied. Large groups of people face similar problems, struggles and threats. Yet the idea of solidarity, while strongly encouraged in society, seems to have little effect on solving these issues. We seem to have a solidarity in the world when it comes to the climate emergency, with 64% of people acknowledging the Climate Emergency[1] and with 59% of the 64% claiming we should do “everything necessary, urgently”[2]. Yet the climate emergency is barely beginning to be addressed, let alone solved. The gap between public opinion and public policy is enough to demotivate, dissatisfy and disempower most of us. This leads many people to seek out organisations or people, who in their mind are to blame for our lack of progress. So why do we value responsibility so much? Can one party even be responsible for such a grand issue? Is seeking those responsible productive, or does it distract us from solving the problem? Let’s attempt to address this.

The importance of responsibility can be narrowed down to a few contributing factors, which range from psychological to systemic. Psychologically, we have an instinct of seeking a scapegoat, someone to blame.[3] This not only allows us to simplify the world, and revert our worldview to be straightforward, but also absolves us of any blame by shifting the attention to someone else. This fuels our obsession with blame and accountability, leading to pour focus on the topic in these issues. Furthermore, our justice system multiplies this. Currently, most judicial systems in High income countries are based on similar principles: motive, responsibility, and punishment. There is a greater tendency to ‘make someone pay’ rather than prevent a similar crime from happening again. This possibly stems from the impact of Christianity and other Abrahamic religions idea of the afterlife, with the Christian hell being a punishment, rather than rehabilitation. This influences our ideas of what is just or unjust greatly, leading to us being more likely to find those who are responsible. The two factors, through giving us the impression of justice, lead us to be almost obsessed with responsibility and blame.

So, the people have risen up, thrust responsibility onto the undoubtedly greatest contributors to climate change and punished them accordingly. What now? Our villains are gone, but is our struggle? Of course not. Solving the issue would undoubtedly become easier after stabilising those who seek to profit from the crisis, yet the issue itself would persist. Is this course of action wrong? Has creating a scapegoat taken away from our efforts to solve the issue? It is debatable, yet I would say no. As long as everyone does not lose track of the issue at hand, responsibility will be more easily be accepted as shared and communal, the fewer of the biggest actors are still contributing. Additionally, this scenario would hugely slow down the crisis, meaning that even if the process of solving it was slowed down, it could still be indeed solved. However, there is also a danger that if all of us focus purely on blame and not on change, then the revenge seeking cycle will ultimately lead to greater inaction than what was already happening. There is certainly a balance we must strike.

Does anyone have the responsibility to solve a collective problem? This question is undoubtedly the most subjective to answer, as it depends on our idea of the concept of morality. One of the largest roots of this is saying that what is moral, is that which ‘helps’. This, put very simply, means we ought to do what we can to help others. As social animals, we ought to do what helps not only ourselves but also those around us. That includes contributing to solving collective problems. I would also argue that we have a certain level of responsibility to help. There are certain philosophical principles which follow along this belief. One is that morality should not impact the decision-maker differently than if any other person was in their position. This means that we, as individuals, should not get special treatment or be exempt just because we are those making the decision. This principle helps us illustrate the importance of altruism. Furthermore, the idea of promoting a value is important within consequentialist tradition. This means that it is more important to lead to a point where the value is maximised, even if it means acting against the value itself. This for example may mean gathering wealth and using it to eliminate inequality, despite contributing to inequality by gathering wealth. Both of these can help us with our debacle. In accordance with these beliefs, we should promote community wellbeing and see others are no different (in the moral sense) than ourselves. We should hold ourselves responsible for doing ‘our part’ to prevent collective problems.

Given this, what is the best course of action? How can an individual approach this issue, and any ones which are similar? I would argue we need to recognise that it is a collective problem, which requires a collective solution. However, we should also recognise that those with the biggest capability to enact change are those which should do it according to their ability. At the end, given this pressing issue, responsibility is important due to the consequences/solutions it will bring forward. Currently, we should be much more concerned with results than revenge.

[1] University of Oxford, UNDP, People’s Climate Vote, 2020, p. 15 Accessed at: The Peoples' Climate Vote | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org) [2] University of Oxford, UNDP, People’s Climate Vote, 2020, p. 17 Accessed at: The Peoples' Climate Vote | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org) [3] Gapminder.com, The Blame Instinct, (9discussed further in Rosling H., Factfullness, 2018), Accessed at: The Blame Instinct | Gapminder