Responsibility

So, continuing the discussion on manipulation and those that crave power, it seems naturally to move into a discussion on responsibility. If someone does a bad thing, who's responsible?

The easy answer is the individual involved. But is that always the whole answer?

I'm a big one for personal responsibility and accountability, but the truth is, there are times when that's not a sufficient answer. There are few religions out there that do not see murder as a serious sin, but what about a soldier? He is murdering others. He trained to do so, often traveled to do so, has weapons and used them against other human beings, without knowing them personally or knowing why those people stood against him. Nor are enemy soldiers the only ones who die during war. So, is every soldier that took another life evil? Is ever bomber pilot responsible for every soul lost to the bombs he dropped? I can't say they're absolved - I don't have that power- but I'm not comfortable with seeing them as simple murderers.

We can bring up self-defense, but, as we haven't fought any wars on our own soil, really, since the civil war, that's pretty specious. Wandering into someone else's nation with tanks and guns is hard to defend with "self-defense". However, we have defended others' nations and we have defended our own interests in others' nations - which should not be confused with each other.

Were all of those wars necessary? Only history will say for sure. Are there wars when soldiers did unspeakable things (often on either side)? Yes, most of them, but it's hard to define where the line of responsibility ends. War has gotten too impersonal with thousands killed without those doing the killing even seeing a face.

If you are manipulated to do something unspeakable - design the nuclear bomb, or a rocket that can rain fire on people half a continent away, or simply keep your mouth shut when someone opens a concentration camp 2 km outside your town - how much of that responsibility is yours? If you torment or torture someone but tell yourself for the greater good, who's responsible? If someone holds a gun to your daughter's head, your mother's, your wife's, how much responsibility do you have for what you do to keep someone from pulling that trigger? If you are young and impressionable, fed lies and depersonalizations to convince you to kill others on sight, who's responsible?

They are tough questions without easy answers, at least for me. In the end we all make our choices, true. And sometimes the paths we tread are not the ones we would have wanted. On the other hand, perhaps sometimes we are too easy on ourselves, finding excuses for doing the inexcusable.

In the end, we'll all have to face ourselves, and live with the choices we've made.