On Responsibility

[Starlock]

The Peril of Solipsism in Magical Practice

This article was posted during this last week over at WitchVox and I felt it would make a good subject to bring up to you all here. The lesson here is one I've often seen overlooked. The article is somewhat lengthy, but a skim read should give you the jist of it.

At core, the article speaks to one of the major issues of magical ethics: responsibility. If you're like most persuing the Neopagan path, you've ran across a general ethic of 'taking responsibility for one's actions' in various books you've read or people you've talked to. Many of them will discuss responsibility from a wholely personal perspective: YOU are responsible for your own actions and nobody else, ever. It's seen as something empowering in most contexts. Instead of placing the control in someone else, you are the only one who exerts control.

Ellwood points out the flaws in this logic, points which are very well known to anybody who has studied a whiff of psychology. In the States in particular, we're so enamored with the notion of "free will" we take statements like this and forget that no, we aren't in control of everything. An empowering sense of personal responsibility is one thing, but taking it to the point that you fail to acknowledge how YOU influence others (or how others influence you) is to be blindsighted.

arrow When you encountered the standard rhetoric on 'personal responsibility' how did it strike you? Where did you agree and disagree with it?

arrow What do you think of Ellwood's addition to responsibility, expanding it to how you influence everything around you (and vice versa)? How much more challenging might this be? Does that challenge make doing this unrealistic?

arrow How does the idea of interconnectedness play into all this? Does that make us somehow responsible for everything or nearly everything? (sure changes the rules on the silly 'blame game' dosen't it? whee )  

[safkef]

Starlock

The Peril of Solipsism in Magical Practice

arrow When you encountered the standard rhetoric on 'personal responsibility' how did it strike you? Where did you agree and disagree with it?

I agree that we all have personal responsibility and wish more people would be living proof of that. It always struck me as odd that very few people mentioned the responsibility that we have to others and how everything we do affects everyone else. Although I don't believe 100% in chaos theory, it does have some very valid points that can relate to sentient responsibility.

Starlock

arrow What do you think of Ellwood's addition to responsibility, expanding it to how you influence everything around you (and vice versa)? How much more challenging might this be? Does that challenge make doing this unrealistic?

I think that there is a responsibility of each person to do the things that are in your best interest as well as that of those around you. At the same time, I believe that you do have to put a limit on that. I think, as people who realize that we DO have responsibility, we have almost more of a responsibility to be; and raise our children to be; more responsible than we might have been if we lived in an ignorant bliss. As for challenging, of course it is! Everything is challenging in life, otherwise life would be boring. Unrealistic? It depends on how far you take the responsibility chain. You have to set realistic expectations for yourself and those in your immediate circle. We have a duty to help other people be as responsible as they are capable of being.

Starlock

arrow How does the idea of interconnectedness play into all this? Does that make us somehow responsible for everything or nearly everything? (sure changes the rules on the silly 'blame game' dosen't it? whee )

Oh, I think I actually addressed this above LOL I don't think we are responsible for EVERYTHING or even nearly everything. I think that in "big picture" stuff like recycling, education on being "green", that yes, we need to worry about a long term, large scale effect. I think on the basic, I ate an orange that wasn't organically grown one time this week, that you have to just deal with reality lol Make sense??