Major Social Revolution: Personal Responsiblity

Here in the US we are just coming to grips with the major social revolution of our time:  a re-assessment of personal/social responsibility.  It hit Europe sometime ago, but in the US the wealthy's denial of this change affecting our understanding of  personal responsibility made it seem the world is just the same as it was, e.g., say,  in the 10th Century AD!    

The revolution is in assigning a degree of  personal responsibility for what happens in a cultural setting or milieu.  You just can't say, "It's not my business!"  The Rush Limbaugh claim: "You decide what to do with your money.  If you value your health, then take out a 1 Million Dollar Insurance Policy.  If you don't think your health is that important, then don't complain when you get sick and no one cares!"  Take responsibility for what you decide to do and what you do!  All else is not your business!

The issue is, what is it reasonable for an intelligent adult to have known prior to his acting in good faith to achieve some objective of his.  Suppose he pursues his aims and at the same time comes down with a disease such as cancer.  He did not expect the disease: it simply happens to him. What is he responsible for?  Did he cause the cancer?  Certainly not in any obvious sense.  True, he ought to have taken out insurance, so he not become a public charge--the latter would not be an option to an individual acting in a  cautious manner, but laying all costs upon the prudent individual is asking too much of anyone who assumes the role of adulthood in his society.  

And so, we of his greater community must bear shared responsibility for the unintended consequences of him and others, who, through thoughtlessness or simply sheer happenstance in the course of living an ordinary life have encountered circumstances they are unable to cope without social help from the community at large to the extent we are able.

The issue is thereupon shifted to a question of social values:  is someone's life more meaningful to the community at large than my  buying  an expensive car I  want?  Setting forth our placement of value--a human's life in our community compared with my buying perhaps the most expensive car I can afford is one way of stating the ethical implications of shared responsibility: we have personal responsibility  to others to the degree we would want them to provide help to us in some similar situation wherein we are not at fault for whatever catastrophic event occurs.