My mom let me read an article about the new head of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (Rick Ufford-Chase). He has a blog. My mom is pretty gassed about this guy and thinks he will do good things while leading her denomination. From what I read I tend to agree.
But the Presbyterian leadership is not what is motivating me to post.
The article I read had to do with an inherent sense of responsibility for others. I think this idea of an inherent responsibility to others can simply be called compassion and that you cannot have compassion or be compassionate without believing there is an inherent obligation to serve others. The opposite of compassionate is selfish. I think that we are also inherently selfish and that this may indeed be our natural, or more likely cultural, state.
In the article I read, Rick said something along the lines of: we cannot have all of the benefits of a global economy without being responsible for the wellfare of the global community’s citizens (aka everybody). I wish I had the article with me so that I could quote it exactly. In the late 1990’s I used to often be heard pontificating on simlar lines. It is much harder to accept this responsibility to the global community now that I have kids.
It is also interesting to follow the existential path down the slope of compassionate responsibility. Nietzche would say that we do not have an inherent responsibility and that we cannot ensure that the global community would be helped just because we intend for our actions to help them. He is absolutely correct that we cannot control the outcomes, but we have complete control over our own actions and should be intentional with them. Though, since we can’t control the outcomes of our actions do we have any obligation to act in any particular way? This was the quandry that put my quest for enlightenment on hold in 1999.
It is here that I pick up today. Do we have an an inherent responsibility to our community? Can we actually help our community?
I am going to sleep on this before I share my opinion.
