On
a scale of 1 (easiest) to 10 (toughest), how difficult is it for you to
accept responsibility? (Serendipity Bible 10th
Anniversary Edition, page 1386).
We
have all heard politicians in the midst of an embarrassing situation
say “I accept full responsibility—in the last analysis whatever
happens on my watch is my responsibility.” By deeply intoning
“whatever happens is my responsibility” he is (while sounding
reassuringly solid) deliberately exculpating himself. For if
everything is his responsibility, then nothing is his responsibility.
One simply cannot be accountable for everything under the sun.
This
brings us to the key question—not will I accept responsibility,
but what is my responsibility? The real dilemma is discerning
where my responsibility begins and ends. No one can accept unlimited
responsibility for everything. Great misadventures occur whenever
unlimited responsibility is assumed, especially if it is assumed by a
person of power and influence—however flattering it may be for the
leader to assume otherwise.
The
responsibility mythology is used to justify great inequity in wealth
distribution. A person claims (usually an owner of high executive)
due to their unlimited responsibilities that they are due unlimited
compensation. The plain fact of the matter is that the work of any
enterprise requires great democratization of responsibility and
accountability, and fairly, of compensation.
Thus
we see that the assumption of unlimited responsibility essentially
derives from selfish interest and arrogance. It takes a little
humility to see ourselves as one among many tasked with essential but
limited responsibilities.
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