Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

The entire basis of wokism springs from Marxist theory which is that people are not responsible for their own decisions, that all failures in your life are due to some sort of evil capitalist or traditionist mindset that has been imbued throughout society and that if you obliterate those structures then everyone will finally be equal.
— Ben Shapiro, 19 February 2023

I have been thinking a lot about personal responsibility since the onset of the Covid era in 2020. First there was the threat of the unknown, then the state promised our safety, and we didn’t need to think for ourselves again! We surrendered our personal responsibility and obeyed the state, even though most of us complained a lot. Sounds rather like Ben Shapiro’s view, don’t you think?

If we have surrendered personal responsibility, I contend that the world has gone mad!

Anyone with any sense knows that life is a tragic business … that’s our existential predicament. I think people know in a deep sense that the antidote to that is not security or safety and it’s not envy or bitterness, it’s a willingness to try to work to make the world a better place.

To start with yourself, take responsibility for yourself and to take responsibility for your family and then take responsibility for your community. Everyone know that the people they admire are the people that do that. We also know that that’s what gets us out of bed on a rough morning. It’s that we have got something vital to do.
— Jordan Peterson, 19 June 2018

Teaching Personal Responsibility

I have been a teacher all my adult life. Teaching personal responsibility has been at the heart of everything I taught. Consider a few scenarios:

1. As a child grows, they seek and are given greater and greater freedom. But with each step into freedom comes the need for personal responsibility. When personal responsibility does not keep pace with freedom, we see horrific death and carnage on our roads, perpetrated by ‘P’ platers.
2. The newborn baby is totally helpless and focused entirely on self. As the infant grows, unless they develop to think of the needs of others, ahead of their own needs, they are considered to be poorly adjusted and ill-disciplined. Unless this is corrected, the adult becomes a criminal, craving their own way, their own desires, and personal gratification at the expense of any who might get in their way.
3. Most schools pride themselves on developing leadership in their students. Leadership responsibilities are never given to students who have not demonstrated personal responsibility. Who would entrust others to the oversight of someone who can’t look after themselves? So, personal responsibility is intentionally taught in incremental steps.

In recent years, I taught adults at Bachelor and Masters levels. I was still teaching personal responsibility. The example I gave at this level was that the students should no longer need their teacher, lecturer, or tutor. They should take responsibility for their own learning; they should know better than anyone else, what they needed to learn. I was effectively making myself redundant!

Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship

Consider this review of some of Hannah Arendt’s 1964 work on how the minority party of Hitler and Goebbels took over and broke the will of the German people so thoroughly that they would allow and participate in mass murder.

The setting is Hannah’s reflection on the post-World War II trials of the perpetrators of the Holocaust that murdered at least six million Jews.

There exists in our society a widespread fear of judging that has nothing whatever to do with the biblical “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” and if this fear speaks in terms of “casting the first stone,” it takes this word in vain. For behind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence the doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done. (p. 19)

The very public trials of the Nazi survivors were like no other that people had witnessed. Here, the ‘crimes’ were committed at an international scale under orders from the top. Put this aside for now, consider what Hannah says about the German people, individually and corporately. It begs the question: do we have personal responsibility, or do we only exist as a crowd?

All of Germany stands accused and the whole of German history from Luther to Hitler which in practice turned into a highly effective whitewash of all those who had actually done something, for where all are guilty, no one is… What I wish to point out, in addition to these considerations, is how deep-seated the fear of passing judgment, of naming names, and of fixing blame-especially, alas, upon people in power and high position, dead or alive. (p. 21)

So, incrementally, as the persecution of the Jews began to develop over the years, at first, the people were easily convinced that the measures of discrimination could be justified. They said nothing. They found their deep-seated fear of passing judgment.

As the years passed and the prosperity promised by Hitler began to materialise, any idea of mounting opposition faded.

Then there was the honest overnight change of opinion that befell a great majority of public figures in all walks of life and all ramifications of culture, accompanied, as it was, by an incredible ease with which lifelong friendships were broken and discarded. (p. 24)

Look what happened: German society polarised. Divisions between friends and within families. The divide between those who had abandoned personal responsibility, and those, the awkward ones who wanted to hang on to their personal responsibility longer; outwardly compliant but inwardly rebelling.

In brief, what disturbed us was the behaviour not of our enemies but of our friends, who had done nothing to bring this situation about. (p. 24)

The people were now riven and driven by their guilt, despite the vast majority having done nothing wrong. There is seldom a trial of anyone for the sins of omission.

Morally speaking, it is as wrong to feel guilty without having done anything specific as it is to feel free of all guilt if one actually is guilty of something. (p. 28) There is no such thing as collective guilt or collective innocence; guilt and innocence make sense only if applied to individuals. (p. 29)

What would I have done? What would you have done? Consider Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) who wrestled with this: should he escape and do nothing, or stay and try to do something? He stayed and tried to do something, and lost his life in the process.

We who appear guilty today are in fact those who stayed on the job in order to prevent worse things from happening; only those who remained inside had a chance to mitigate things and to help at least some people; we gave the devil his due without selling our soul to him, whereas those who did nothing shirked all responsibilities and thought only of themselves, of the salvation of their precious souls. (p. 34)

Going back to the German people as a whole. It is perfectly understandable that there would be a national sense of guilt. Perhaps we can see that some of the modern-day actions of the German state are a response to their corporate guilt. For example, Angela Merkel’s 2015 open borders acceptance of over a million refugees.

The best proof, if proof were still needed, of the extent to which the whole people, regardless of party affiliation and direct implication, believed in the “new order” for no other reason than that that was the way things were, was perhaps the incredible remark Eichmann’s lawyer, who had never belonged to the Nazi Party, made twice during the trial in Jerusalem, to the effect that what had happened in Auschwitz and the other extermination camps had been “a medical matter.” (p. 42)

Look at that — it might have been easier to accept the genocide if you didn’t call it genocide. The narrative is vital. Who was crafting the narrative, and who was maintaining the narrative?

Lessons for Us Today

Worldwide antisemitism is on the rise again. Let’s not be a people who let things go and say nothing. An international movement is gathering pace – Never Again is Now! We have a rally in Sydney this Sunday, 18^th February. Attending a rally is a small thing, you might say, but over 100,000 gathered in London late last year for this event; let’s see if we can match that here by population ratio! The Daily Declaration ran a great piece on this – do have a read!

Harder, I admit, let’s make the regaining of our personal responsibility one of our goals for the year. Let’s search our hearts. Are there areas we have abdicated to others or to the state? Let’s pray that as Christians, we shall not be deceived, finding our personal responsibility taken away without our knowing.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Finally, let us rejoice in taking up our personal responsibility. This could be learning to accept responsibility for ourselves again, rather than blaming others. This could be taking responsibility for our loved ones, when previously we have simply run away. This could be taking responsibility for a cause bigger than ourselves; walking in the footsteps of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Wilberforce or even Jesus Christ. Jesus took personal responsibility for the whole world, past, present and future! This is our ultimate example. Yes, he struggled, but he did it:

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
~ Luke 22:42

___

Photo: Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust/Flickr