Rights and responsibilities in the age of collective action
We want our rights. Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t tell me I cannot go out, cannot travel, cannot dance.
Yet with more access to rights comes rights partner pair, responsibility.
One, rights, is a stance of I, me, mine. Responsibility is the stance of you, the other, our duty of care.
We know this intrinsically because if we drive a vehicle we want right to drive and we do not want others’ right to drive to kill us. So we create rules. If rules are not followed, rules become tighter. No road rules, chaos ensures.
We are living in an age of collective impact. Be that a virus, or the unravelling effects of atmosphere cancer and environmental degradation. It is not feasible for a response to be anything but collective. All-in. The entire Spaceship Earth and all her citizens working together.
If I were an intelligent Universe Coach with a very long-term plan, I might orchestrate circumstances that force collective action.
The solo, ‘Don’t tell me what to do’ individual, is the virus. The collective, working together, builds immunity. Some solo outliers also live the duty of care as a way of continuing to rattle the cage of humanity’s evolution.
Photo taken September 7th 2020
