Valley Springs High School

Valley Springs, Arkansas

Teacher: Lavina Grandon

 

 

Implied Responsibility:

Does Success Imply Social Responsibility?

By Brooke Eddy
Grade 12, Age 17

 

Why does the fact that a person has gained wealth or fame automatically make our society think of that person as being socially responsible?  Too often our society finds itself disappointed with a major "role-model" when he or she shows some kind of undependable quality.  It's hard to imagine that in their climb to successful heights our so-called heroes were so focused on attaining some power position that they never thought of their responsibilities to the rest of the world. Yet it is true that successful people who have focused their whole lives on personal achievement are often not the best models for society to follow, and putting them on a pedestal has ultimately deteriorated the quality of life today.  Instead, every member of society should be his own role model as he strives to live up to his responsibilities to himself, his fellow man, his family, and his job.           

Social responsibility begins with everyone taking responsibility for himself.  Richard Eckersley says, "How we choose to live affects the world, there is no escaping that, so we should choose to live to change the world".  It's become acceptable for one to choose to live his life doing only what he must to survive, to live a life that is sufficient.  Do we not owe ourselves the obligation to pursue some higher level of satisfaction in life?  When we as a society choose to trap ourselves in depleting jobs, or encased in relationships that go absolutely nowhere, it's impossible to escape the boredom that devours any hope of personal accomplishment.  Without the feeling that we're going somewhere, the feeling that we can change the world, our lives feel useless.  If we wander around our "sufficient" lives believing life stinks, life's not fair, and that we've already accomplished what we're here to do, we relinquish the responsibilities of our lives to others in the community in hopes that they will pick up our slack.

 Behind how we fulfill the responsibilities to ourselves lies how we fulfill the responsibilities we owe our fellow man.  In today's society it seems that we've lost the ability to deal with one another face to face.  We blame our incapability to deal with one another on how vast our nation has become and how, with the ever growing technological advances we posses, there's no reason to look a man in the face while making a major business transaction.  The lack of personal contact has made mankind in general desensitized to the quality of life.  Thirty years ago who would've guessed that it would ever be commonplace to hear of a man being shot down in the streets, or of a mere twelve year old child opening fire on other innocent children?  To our fellow man we owe our kindness, our unlimited caring, and, most of all, our understanding.  While we may think that no one has experienced what we've experienced, that no one has had it worse that us, and that no one could possibly understand where we're coming from, the truth is, it doesn't matter if we share the exact same experiences. If we attempted to understand one another, it would germinate more responsibility toward mankind throughout our communities.

 Another place where our responsibilities have been totally overlooked is in our family setting.  Family has become a chore in everyday life.  It has become more tedious than walking the family dog.  Parents have become so engaged in working a nine to five job to make a "better" life for their children that it's rare if they see those children for more that a couple of hours a day.  It's common for parents to be completely unaware of where their child is, what grades their child maintains, and what, if any, major traumatic events their child has endured.  Children, in return, misuse this new independence and often fall into the drug scene, end up as another number on the teen pregnancy statistics, or end up being one of the many missing or dead children that society simply discards.  Most times children live with one parent and rarely have contact with the other.  It's hard to imagine that a child growing up without the display of societal responsibility could ever learn to display any type of his own responsibility.  Faith Popcorn says, "we have so many latchkey children in search of a human connection".  The familial environment instills what our children carry to their future lives, and if a nine-to-five job full of loneliness is what we instill, what do we expect from our children?

 Next in the ladder of responsibility are the jobs we choose to "better our lives.

"Most people assume that 'progress' means more of everything, more money, more technologies, more things to buy, bigger houses, and cars.  But shouldn't we be asking whether 'more' is better?", says Robert Eckersley.  When we enter the workforce, is it to provide some service to mankind or to get a bigger stereo system in our cars?  When we constantly strive to obtain all of these material things, we lose the emphasis of our true responsibilities.  Even if a person works at McDonalds, he should focus on making better fries, not on how much longer he has to work for a new system.  Eckersley also says, "Growth is central to our economic system, and material progress lies at the heart of our culture, a culture powerfully reinforced by the mass media, marketing, and advertising".  When we do achieve what materialistic goals we set out to accomplish, we're often left craving some other technological gadget to entertain our lives.  Kathleen Sullivan gathers, "When basic needs for food and shelter are widely satisfied, we often turn to what other societies would regard as collective luxuries".  If we're lucky most of us will retire from our jobs by the age of seventy, but rarely do the elderly find themselves happy without working day in and day out in some office where they’re overworked and under appreciated.  Pamela Squires believes, "The rewards of doing something worthy are not easily left behind when the last box is brought from the office".  If we work our entire lives struggling to posses material things it almost becomes as habitual as drugs and alcohol.  It seems that even in our old age or life has to be bettered, not by the grace of God, but by a new set of clubs. We literally work ourselves to death to be able to say I’m going to Nepal for a week. 

 

References

Eckersley, R. (1999). Is life really getting better? The Futurist (January).

Balantine Publishing Group. (1998). A tribe apart. New York: Author.

Sullivan, K. (1999). The good that lawyers do [speech posted on the World Wide Web]. Retrieved November 5, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.singerfoundation.org.

Spuires, P. (1999). A retiring nature. Secure Retirement (July/August).

 

  Answers To Questions For Required Reading

 

Q1-How does society invest in marriage in the USA and in Manus?

A1-The USA doesn’t really have a concern about the people and the status of their relationship and in Manus it is considered a horrible thing if people are divorced.

  Q2-Interview 10 married people.  (No names.) State the length and number of each one’s marriages and a line or two of advice from each on how to maintain a long, happy relationship.

A2-Marriage
#1-This couple has been together for 25 years.  This is the first marriage for both of them.  They say in order to have a long, happy relationship each person has to have respect for the other, and don’t let minor problems get in the way.

#2-This couple has been together for 5 years.  The woman has been married twice and the man once.  The advice is to love and care for one another and show concern.

#3-This couple has been together for 11 years.  They have only been married this one time.  The advice is to wait to have children until you are sure that both of you can handle it.

#4-This couple has been together for 15 years.  This is the second marriage for the both of them.  The advice is to respect and honor on another and consider each others feelings.

#5-This couple has been together for 20 years.  They were both married twice.  The advice is that you have got to learn to give and take.

#6-This couple has been together for 18 years.  This is the first marriage for both of them.  The advice is don’t let minor things or personal problems interfere with the relationship.

#7-This couple has been together for 14 years.  This is the wife’s 2^nd and the Husband’s 3^rd marriage.  The advice is follow your instincts and don’t worry about what others think.

#8-This couple has been together for 12 going on 13 years.  This is the first marriage for both of them.  The advice is to get along not matter what situation comes up.

#9-This couple has been together for 3 years.  This is the first marriage for both of them.  The advice is to learn to make sacrifices in order to help one another.

#10-This couple has been together for 11 years.  This is the husband’s second and the wife’s first marriage. The advice is to listen and care for one another.

 

Q3-According to Richard Eckersley, what should our collective goal be?

A3-According to Richard Eckersley your collective goal should be to dematerialize society with out reducing the quality of life.

  Q4-Write a worthy goal for your local community.

A4-The goal of my community should be to respect what is giver to us and not want for anything else and we should try to help everyone not just the well liked families.

Q5-Comment on the excerpts from “Tomorrow’s Child.”

A5-I agree that more parents should be there for their children and not always give them material things.  I don’t really agree with the statistics about the races in the U.S. society, because I don’t feel that the comparisons of races are valid.

  Q6-How does the fact the USA is a democracy make lawyers particularly helpful, according to Kathleen Sullivan? How does our diversity, wealth and size make lawyers particularly helpful?

A6-The fact that the U.S. is a democracy makes lawyers particularly helpful in that they help protect individuals from tyranny of the majority.  Diversity helps in that it considers the respect for religion, race, national origin, and with respect of women. Wealth helps because the U.S. is a wealthy country through society and historical standards and the law can help solve the problems of our environment.  The size of the U.S. is helpful in that it is a vast, expansive territory where individual can have the choice to work closely together or further apart.

  Q7-Ms. Sullivan claims bad practices are changed either by regulations or punitive damages.  Which do you prefer and why? Can you think of an alternative?

A7-I prefer to use punitive damages because each person or organization should have to admit to their mistakes and not just make a “deal” with the plaintiff but pay for what has happened in a fair way.

Q8-Breifly describe three ways society would benefit from the coming retirement of baby boomers, according to the required reading.

A8-1.) Will provide jobs for the teenage entrepreneurs

       2.) Some of the retired will start their own business and give advice to the young soon to be baby boomers.

       3.) Maybe they will provide assistance for the elderly within the home.

 

Q9-Evaluate the likelihood of President Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real impact. Give at least three reason to back your conclusion.

A9-The likelihood of President Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real impact is very slim.  One reason is because it has been found that 35% of former welfare recipients can’t perform simple tasks, such as finding a place on a street map.  The second reason is that 41% couldn’t use a calculator to work out a 10% discount.  The third reason is  that the poor unemployed may be willing to work but man not be useful.

  Q10-Name three things Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have in common.

A10-One thing that they have in common is that they both have huge responsibilities to their companies.  Another thing is that they both have interest in the education of our future leaders. And the last thing is that they both volunteer to teach children in one way or another.

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