Accountability, Shame No Longer Important

[From article]
"When did accountability become such a quaint idea? It’s as old as civilization, the bulwark upon which governments and financial transactions have always been set. Every major world religion espouses it as a mark and essential component of true maturity. It motors the social contract — without believing that each person or institution you interact with has a sense of accountability, there is no trust
[. . .]
Technology, too, has loosened the parameters of societal shame meant to keep even the ugliest id in check: Read through the comments section of any blog or newspaper, and the level of vitriol found there never fails to shock, the vicious attacks on everything from an individual’s race to political leanings to personal attractiveness, all unleashed under the anonymity of the Web.
[. . .]
Viktor Frankl’s famous suggestion, in his 1946 book “Man’s Search for Meaning,” that a Statue of Responsibility be erected on the West Coast, to counterbalance the Statue of Liberty on the East. “Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth,” he wrote. “Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.”
[. . .]
The idea that one should educate themselves enough to ask questions and think critically is directly linked to personal responsibility. How else can one take care of oneself, let alone contribute to society meaningfully, without it?"

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/see_no_evil_3TmEGhkSpmDQ5Ep9g5Wt1O

See no evil
A nation where no one is held responsible and no one takes responsibility
Maureen Callahan
New York Post
Last Updated: 3:39 AM, July 10, 2011
Posted: 12:06 AM, July 10, 2011