Responsible Life

Responsibility means different things for different people because everyone is their own shade of grey. Even my own ideas about what is responsible for some particular situation evolve with time as my knowledge expands and as the situation itself changes. And what I may think is the right course of action on some issue is dependent of how I prioritize and address all of the different variables affecting the issue and the probable resultant consequences. What is right is therefore highly relative - in relation to time, to place, to priorities, to fears, to dreams, to whatever. So I am a moral relativist. And yet, nevertheless, I have some general outline understandings of responsibility for a range of lifestyle choices. And it is these general outlines that I want to briefly mention in this post.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I believe all areas of responsibility are interrelated, compatible and mutually beneficial. Being responsible in one does not necessarily preclude being responsible in another; quite the contrary, for I believe that being responsible in any area leads to more responsibility in all others. So much so that I believe it to lead to a virtuous cycle of continuous reinforcement and growth. Take smoking as an example. When one quits smoking, the consequent benefits radiate to all aspects of the individual's life. One's health is better for it, as is one's pocket book as smoking can be an expensive habit. The environment is also better for it as the air gets less polluted and scarce resources are not wasted on such a negative lifestyle habit. Quitting smoking is also good for society as one will probably live a longer healthier life that will not require expensive medical treatment, often paid by financially strapped and overworked state hospitals. As health improves individual relations, with family and friends, can become more physically active and stress free. I say stress free because there will be friends and family who deeply care about the individual and worry about his or her health; quitting smoking and the subsequent health improvements can ameliorate those worries and allow those individuals to interact with the former smoker with greater peace of mind. Improvements in social interaction can lead the individual to spend more free time doing activities, such as taking walks or playing a game of tennis or going camping, that further improve health, social bonding, finances, the environment, etc. And the positive cycle can continue. That was an example of eliminating a negative lifestyle choice. An example of adopting a positive lifestyle choice would be using a bicycle for transportation. It is good for one's health because one gets decent regular exercise. It is good for the environment because one does not spew out toxic gases, CO2 and unwanted noise. It is good for one's finances as one does not spend money on expensive fuel and vehicle maintenance. It is good for society as town and city centers become less congested with traffic, parked cars, intolerable noise, and smog; and the state has to spend less on road infrastructure and repair. It is good for individual relations as couples or families or friends can take leisurely bike rides together. There are numerous other benefits. And these benefits cycle through to create more benefits - when your personal relations improve, you have more peace of mind and the reduced stress brings more health benefits. Improved personal relations also help you focus better at work, which improves finances. And so on.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I believe the right thing to do is to maintain my health in good condition. A healthy body and a healthy mind. I believe you can not have one without the other. Trying to lead a stress free life is important. Finding a job one is comfortable with is important, and not trying to do too much at once at work goes with that. Maintaining good family relations also helps reduce stress. Keeping mentally active, by reading or taking up a hobby for instance, keeps the mind sharp. Eating right and just the right amounts helps maintain body health, as does regular physical activity of one form or another. Avoiding drugs of any form, whether tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, or stronger illicit drugs, is also key. Doing things safely, like putting on a car belt or bike helmet or wearing eye protection when using a chainsaw, keeps you in one piece. And I think it also important to promote these things in your spouse and family members because, in the end, what is worse, lying in a hospital bed wasting away with disease or watching a loved one do so?

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I believe the right thing to do is to maintain my finances in good condition. I believe it is in my best interests to be financially independent and self-sufficient. Becoming a long-term financial burden on anyone, be it family, friends, charities, or the state, neither helps the one receiving aid nor those giving it. It is insidious and leads to habits that are counterproductive. At the other extreme, relying on debt is dangerous. If one's financial situation is in order, debt is not a necessity; if one's financial situation is not in order than debt is another form of gambling. And the pernicious effects of gambling can show up whether playing with dice or playing with credit cards. Keeping one's financial house in order leads to a more comfortable, stress-free life.

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I believe the right thing to do is to ensure relations with family and friends are in good condition. I believe it is mutually beneficial. These are people one cares about and negative relations can lead to stress and conflict. Positive relations on the other hand allow one to rely on family and friends for emotional and practical support. Besides being a helpful crutch in troubled times, they also provide the two most precious and priceless gifts one can be blessed with - love and friendship. So good relations provide for emotional, mental and practical well-being. Of course, one should try to maintain good relations with everyone, including strangers, for much the same reasons, but doing so with family and friends is paramount.

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I believe the right thing to do is to ensure society is in good condition. The modern world we live in is built upon a foundation of structured, intergrated social cohesion and interaction. If these social structures disintegrate, man would fall into lawless chaos, leading to violence, destruction, suffering and death. On the other hand, ever improving social structures, at every level, from local community levels to the international level, allow for continued progress on all fronts - health and education, technology development and exploitation, energy and infrastructure, poverty reduction, and so on. By ensuring society works, we ensure continued improvements all around us. And any improvement anywhere helps one directly or indirectly, in one way or another. Improvements in Thirld World development, for example, help stanch uncontrolled, dangerous and exploitative illegal immigration to one's First World community, helping thereby to lessen possible conflicts. Helping strengthen society, at any level and at any location, benefits everyone.

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I believe the right thing to do is to ensure the environment is in good condition. Man relies on nature for its needs. The air we breathe needs to be clean. We need sufficient clean water. The land needs to be healthy to continue providing us with sufficient clean food. The forests need to be healthy to continue providing us with their benefits, such as wood, storm water control, filtering the air, regulating the microclimate, etc. The oceans need to be health to continue providing us with their benefits, such as fish and climate controls. No one wants the Gulf stream or El Nino to start acting significantly different. The rivers need to be clean to continue providing their benefits. We are part of this planet and live from it and its systems. The more we damage and destroy these systems, the more we sacrifice the benefits that they give us and that we need. The more cumulative damage done, the more likely entire ecosystems collapse, not only taking with them the benefits they once gave, but also possibly affecting other larger regional ecosystems. And the worst danger to the environment is global warming, with its ability to catastrophically impact the Earth's global balances. Balances which affect each and every ecosystem everywhere on the globe. Global warming threatens to put the global society of Man at risk by eliminating many of the things Man currently depends on from nature - benefits that we can not live without. As such, my main worry in life is global warming as it has the potential to damage, even destroy, everything else that I care and worry about. For this reason, most of this blog is dedicated to explaining my attempts to eliminate myself from being part of the global warming problem because global warming is the sum of all of the individual actions of each inhabitant of this planet. I can not solve global warming because that is something that requires a concerted effort from all of us. The solution comes when each of us refuses to be part of the problem. And that is what I am trying to do.