Responsibility and Accountability

Responsibility and Accountability

When I looked at my life as a retrospective, my whole life's wisdom boiled down into two words - responsibility and accountability.

If I can take responsibility for being accountable of whatever I do, then life becomes very simple. I choose my choices wisely as I would be held responsible and also I am accountable for whatever I do.

If we can teach these two words and the deepest meaning of these two words to all the people in the world, then the world will turn into a very peaceful world.

The moment I take accountability or someone says "you are accountable for whatever you do," immediately I will start behaving more responsibly.

Example 1

Let us look into an example where we have an unlimited broadband connection. The moment it is an unlimited internet connection, we binge browse and download all unnecessary information. Whether we want it or not for that moment, we just download it. And, we would like to justify our downloads with a so called futuristic approach, that we may need it for our future requirement which could be about 10 years later and by which the technology also changes and the information that is downloaded may become irrelevant sometimes. The moment we say it is unlimited, we tend to watch continuously movies in all those wooing movie channels irrespective of whether we really like the movie or not (binge watching) and whether the movie is going to add some value or not to our life. But, let us say the broadband companies put a caveat stating that if you watch a movie, then you have to pay $1 extra for each movie that you watch, then we immediately get into a choice and choose wisely what to watch and what not to watch.

Example 2

If someone tells me, I am accountable for whatever I talk and whatever words I use, because my words are going to influence the person listening to - first psychologically and then physiologically (as the brain releases different hormones that influence the body), then I would definitely be more responsible in choosing my words and the intonation with which I deliver those words.

The people in the world face more abuses in terms of words that are uttered by people around them, than the the physical abuses or atrocities. So, can we choose our words more wisely and convey them with more love irrespective of whether the other person listens to us or not.

I have seen people (both men and women) abusing each other more with words rather than physically hurting each other and hampering their relationships. Sometimes by not saying the right word at the right time also many relationships just collapse.

Example 3

If someone tells the story writer of a movie that he or she is accountable for whatever the effect it is going to cause on the people who will watch the movie, and he/she will be held responsible for it, then perhaps the story writer writes in a more responsible way.

Example 4

If we hold all the industrialists accountable for whatever the pollution that is being created and they are responsible for it, then they would obviously be manufacturing only those goods that will not cause pollution.

Example 5

If we tell parents that are going to be responsible for their child's birth and the way the born child is going to behave in the society and whatever good or bad the child does, they would be held accountable for it, because t nohey have given birth to such a child, then the mother and father will think 1000 times before conceiving so that they give birth only to a noble child or a child of high character.

In this way if we make people accountable for whatever they do or going to do, then their choices becomes more wiser and they automatically behave more responsibly. There is no need to teach about any religion or any religious practices. Just these two words and it will change drastically their approach towards life.