Some of us recognize a moral obligation to act responsibly. We appreciate the wisdom and compassion of the sentiment and, in fact, share and enact it. We willingly obligate ourselves to be responsible for the intelligent and loving care of those near and dear, and for the way we initiate and fulfill our roles as thinker, worker, peer, neighbor, teacher and citizen.
Others of us, though, aren't so sure that responsibility is a moral duty. Coercive, it denies our inescapable appetites and binds us to the self-interested, self-anointed claims made by others about what is meaningful.
Certainly, we know from much media—newspapers, facebook, television—that many of us are looking for answers, resources or outlets that will end our anxiety, anger and personal grievances. Little of this material acknowledges, though, this same media’s role in perpetuating the discontent. In fact, if we’re not judicious in the matter of what we absorb from the media, we may find ourselves at home with, and attached to, a culture of complaint—as if such attachment were proof of a discerning sensibility. Aren't we more or less encouraged by such media to nurse feelings like resentment and to use any and all disappointments to justify lethargy, indulgence or woe?
But think about it. Literally. I know that thinking may seem ethereal—as if it doesn’t act on the physical realities of life. We can all see the fruits of our labor when building a brick pathway for our gardens or increasing our physical strength. But progress on the neural pathways that thinking constructs may not be immediately observable.
However, thinking performed upon the brain works like regular practice works. Thinking and practicing the guitar or basketball, for example, affect the brain's spontaneous response. Brains use practice, insights or recognitions to inform—to perform or act upon—themselves. Ordinary practice of a new endeavor builds neural pathways that make easier what was once difficult. Our sustained thinking builds the neural correlates to summon command instead of an undisciplined response to immediacy.
Acting responsibly helps you to flourish individually and us collectively to forward the modern human project—the autonomous imperative. Responsibility is actually synonymous with mastery and virtuosity. Acting responsibly reflects an intended and practiced coming together of context, intelligence and discipline. Such embodied resource enables us to recognize how we could satisfy our inescapable appetites (for sex, wealth, influence, fun, etc.) without exploiting others and fulfill our desire to live a life as expansive as the reach of our autonomy, imagination and love allows.
In sum, I don’t think of acting responsibly as the end of joy. I think of it as the basis of command. And I think of irresponsibility as a systemic intelligence overwhelmed by immediacy and the inevitable anger and discontents that accompany a lack of command.
Arnold Siegel is the founder of Autonomy and Life and leader of its Retreat Workshops and Advanced Classes.