Responsibility

In law and in philosophy, two things always go together: duties and rights. When we fulfill our duties, we deserve corresponding rights and benefits. We pay taxes (duty), so we deserve to live in a comfortable society (right). We serve in the army (duty), so our families get to live in a peaceful country (right).

Duties and rights form a fair and reasonable balance.

But most people, being selfish by nature, like to seek rights and dodge duties. We want to be comfortable but will not contribute. Such a person has little morality. A person of average morality balances what they contribute against what they enjoy, trying to keep the balance fair. If you eat, you mop the floor and wash the dishes.

A person of high morality prefers to contribute more than they receive in benefits. They understand that the extra duty turns into blessings later. They understand that contributing a lot gives the mind peace and happiness.

Understanding this, they devote themselves to the community. They look after their family with care, they get more done at the office than is asked, they help the neighbors before being asked.

There is one more motive that makes a person live responsibly: they love people. They love their family, their coworkers, their neighbors, their society, their country. That love makes them want to care for and help everyone around them. They do everything their duty requires, and try to do more, even taking on other people's work.

A father earns money to feed his wife and children, and still gladly does extra housework to help them. A civil servant finishes work and picks up trash around the neighborhood. A businessperson in spare time goes to look after a planted forest. They have gone beyond the duty required of them. They love, and they are responsible.

A responsible life has two elements: love, and fully doing your duties to your family and society. Beyond that, we try to do more than our duty.

What is duty? In the end, it is caring for the people we are bound to by feeling and by moral obligation. It is also finishing the work we are assigned.

To live responsibly, to finish what we are assigned and care for those we love, we have to spend less time pursuing our own pleasures. Someone who sinks into harmful pleasures can never be responsible. With drink, gambling or lust, there is no room left in the mind or heart for family. Parents, spouse, children, society and homeland have no place in the heart of someone absorbed in pleasure.

Living responsibly means putting up with hardship. At first it feels hard, but after years it becomes happiness. A responsible person brings joy to the people around them and holds back their own amusements, and the law of cause and effect will surely bring back good results in return.