Collective Responsibility.

Responsibility is collective, therefore, I don’t agree with the individualist spin put in by Arendt. Should someone pay or be punished because of the actions of others? I think so, not because that person should pay but because in reality we all pay for the actions of others. Should a son be punished for his fathers mistakes? Surely not, but doesn't the son of an irresponsible father lack what the son of a responsible father has in abundance, so a son always pays or receives blessings from their parents. For better or worse, we are responsible for the "communities" we live in.

I dislike Arendt's comments on Individualism and guilt, she condemns the guilt felt by the descendants of white slave owners, that's not right. There are things that a person can't control and yet we are still responsible for cleaning up the mess others left behind.
The problem with white slave owners is that slavery didn't die when slavery ended
If I was white, how could I not feel shame when recalling the cruel actions of my grandfathers. If I was black how could I not feel anger towards slavery knowing that my flesh and blood were treated worse than caged animals. Guilt is a good things, at least it shows shame and hopefully repentance. At least guilt acknowledges the action.

Communities and actions simply transcend individuals and their life. So even after slavery ended, a slave-like world continued. We are responsible for the world we live in, therefore, we have a “collective responsibility” to all human action. I am responsible for my fathers actions, because my fathers actions affect me and the world I live in.

There's a human community and all humans are inter-related in this web which affects all. We might not dump toxic waste barrels into the oceans, but we eat the fish. You could speak of the individual freedom all you want, but there are communities and connections that exist beyond the individual.

I am providing my community service at Youth Court in San Rafael, and youth court is not to be blamed for the delinquent youth that they try to help, but its our responsibility to guide the young.

Sometimes i walk into youth court and feel like I'm babysitting but i kinda wish some of the friends i grew up with would have received the chance to go trough a program like Youth Court.
I really think that we all pay for not educating the next generation, because you can give a person the freedom to fuck up, but no one wants to see themselves in that position.

Society and Common Sense according to Arendt

“The Socratic-Platonic description of the process of thinking seems to me so important because it implies, albeit only in passing, the fact that men exist in the plural and not in the singular, that men and not Man inhabit the earth” (Arendt 96). After reading this, I was reminded of a similar quote that we discussed about whether there is a society or not. I think that this is more along the lines of what I tend to agree with. It is important for individuals to realize that we are a society of many people; there is not one person who is more important than any other is. I think that this idea could and should be integrated with classroom rules. It is important for the fifth graders I work with to be able to work with each other and teachers, especially since this is their last year at an elementary school.

Teachers and other adults call for common sense in these young adolescents. I found it interesting to read that, according to Kant, common sense is not an individual sense, but rather takes into account the thoughts of the rest of the community. “Common sense … can think … in the place of everybody else, so that when somebody makes the judgment … he claims assent from others because in judging he has already taken them into account and hence hopes that his judgments will carry a certain general, though perhaps not universal, validity” (Arendt 140). I found it interesting to look at common sense as a sense of the community as I thought of it as an individual sense. However, after reading the pages concerning Arendt’s and Kant’s I understand how individuals must look to the community to see what is right in the eyes of peers. Now I want to try to look more closely at this aspect of behaviors from the kids who I work with.

Arendt, Hannah. Responsibility and Judgment. Ed. Jerome Kohn. New York: Schocken, 2003.

Hannah Arendt's Responsibility & Judgment

In this blog, I will try to relate my two service experiences to two quotes from Hannah Arendt’s book, “Responsibility and Judgment”. I will start off with my service at the Marin Youth Center teaching youth the art of “bboying” aka break dance. In her book the author states, “I tried to show that our decisions about right and wrong will depend upon our choice of company, of those with whom we wish to spend our lives” (145-146). This quote is very true and manifests in the decisions made by the kids that I work with. A lot of them seem a little rough around the edges at times but it differs depending on the different groups of kids. Some of them choose to be wild and run around, so they never really listen when told to stop. Others, however, choose to hang out with the more quiet kids in the computer lab and do not seem to cause much trouble or noise. Then there are those that choose to learn to break dance who I have seen make smart decisions outside of the center. Break dancing teaches them perseverance, confidence, and creativity. I have been told that it helps them to participate and not be shy at school and to not be afraid of learning and discovering new things. Thus, it is evident that like Arendt’s quote, these kids decision are influenced by the company and people they hang out with.

Hannah Arendt writes in the chapter "Collective Responsibility," that "we can escape this political and strictly collective responsibility only by leaving the community, and since no man can live without belonging to some community, this would simply mean to exchange one community for another and hence one kind of responsibility for another" (150). In helping at the Marin Aids Project, I have felt a new sense of “community” with the agency. I am now part of a group/collective who endeavor to educate people on the facts of HIV/Aids and prevention techniques as well as how to deal with being positive. Although I do not actually counsel people or interact a lot with them, I do my part by helping the administration and making their job more efficient. My effort and responsibilities are all part of a big effort to help the community of Marin.

Responsibility and Judgment Blog Posting

In John Locke’s Second Treatises of Government, when the state ceases to function for the people, then it may be replaced by the people. When the executive ignores its duties, society turns to chaos and people are free to reform in order to re-create a civil state that works in their best interest before they fall under tyrannical rule. People may leave a government not necessarily to cause rebellion, but just to avoid collective responsibility. People who avoid collective responsibility, may do it because they want to avoid for instance, the decision making process of who gets to judge executive and legislative acts. According to Aristotle, the community exists so that people can have a good life. Anyone who lives outside the community are not self-sufficient, because they need it to maintain themselves morally in order to know what is the right way to live.

We can escape this political and strictly collective responsibility only by leaving the community, and since no man can live without belonging to some community, this would simply mean to exchange one community for another and hence one kind of responsibility for another. (Arendt 150)

Volunteering at Marin Aids Project has been rewarding because I know that my time and talents are being used to encourage the development of others in the agency. As a receptionist and by helping others with computer assistance, I’m learning how the community works and the difference even a small level of help can make. I know that by being there at Marin Aids Project that I’m making our community a better place to live. According to Aristotle, the good that you do for the community, you also do for yourself. I agree with him because no one can avoid living without the community, and its difficult to do so. With that in mind, what I’ve learned at Marin Aids, is that we can come to an understanding of moral excellence in any community that we are a part of.

Arendt, Hannah. Responsibility and Judgment. Random House, Inc. 2005