Responsibility is a marker that separates a good person from a bad person. A good friend, father, boss, nightguard, or teacher is a responsible person. A good person conducts herself with a lot of responsibility.
Conversely, a bad person is often the one who lacks the quality of responsibility. The preponderance of responsible persons can also be viewed as a divider between a good society and a bad society. Following a recent visit -- rather a residency -- in Germany, I am more convinced that responsibility is a key variable in understanding why some societies function better than others.
Societies that function better are societies where most people behave responsibly.
In his column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman wrote after he visited Germany that in the US people take the “do not cross” sign as a suggestion, while in Germany it is seen as an instruction. As I watched people waiting patiently at the red crossing, it reminded me of Singapore, where a hefty fine ensures responsible behaviour. At a popular fast-food restaurant in Siegen, Germany where I stayed, I saw people of different ages and tattoos queuing up, maintaining a safe distance to order their food. Rarely, I encountered arguments or shouts demanding a safe distance.
Accidents such as the recent (August 15) girder tragedy that crushed a family of four are not acts of God or destiny. They are outcomes of irresponsible conduct and practices on the part of some people or institutions.
Thinking cross-culturally, I observed variable responsibility in simple things such as responding to a letter or an email. As a student in an American university decades ago, I learned that people in high places in some cultures do not respond to letters unless they are their peers or friends. While, when I wrote to important sociologists as a young graduate student, I always received replies.
In the late 1990s, I wrote to US President Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore and received replies (most likely, from their staffers) but rarely I experienced a non-response. While I have experienced non-response in Bangladesh; let alone from government officials but also officials from universities and even from people I have known over the years. Writing an email costs time, yet a response reveals some human qualities on the part of the responder. The most important of which is a sense of responsibility.
Just imagine, a professional doing his or her job responsibly would make a lot of difference. A driver driving his truck responsibly, a policeman discharging his duties responsibly, one turning off the cooking gas at the end of cooking, a car owner asking his driver to turn off the ignition while idling, or a government taking responsibility for handling the traffic. The traffic crisis in Dhaka is an outcome of collective irresponsibility.
So, when the gateman failed to close the rail crossing gate causing a tragic accident, it shows his utter lack of a sense of responsibility. Max Weber, a famous German sociologist, highlighted the importance of what he called the ethics of responsibility, which he distinguished from the ethics of conviction. As per the news report, the gateman concerned was indulging in the latter.
But not everything is dismal. There are signs -- though rare -- of responsible conduct. Years ago, when I was asked by the parents of a friend to make their son agree to a marriage proposal, my friend responded to me: “I will marry only after I complete the hanger project.” He was an engineer, responsible for the hanger project of Bangladesh Biman. A recent example of two planes colliding in the hanger shows someone messed up big time and should be held responsible.
On the positive side, let’s look at some successful outcomes due to responsible behaviour. Success in fertility control in Bangladesh is an outcome of parents who showed responsible behaviour or responded responsibly to the campaigns initiated by the governments.
Many doctors and health workers worked responsibly in fighting the Covid-19 crisis. Recently, a doctor told me that she was infected with the virus only when she was scratched by a dying Covid patient in a Dhaka hospital. She was serving her patient in proximity with care and responsibility. Imagine, businesspeople who took loans from the banks responsibly and then repaid the loans responsibly.
Honesty and responsibility go hand in hand. A sense of duty and responsibility are almost synonymous. Paying taxes is both a duty and responsibility. A responsible government in turn must also ease the payment of taxes. When tax officials are responsible, they encourage rather than blackmail taxpayers with bad outcomes.
When people do not behave responsibly, there are two antidotes: The market and the state. If you spend more than you earn, and do not behave responsibly, you will be punished by the market in the end. This is true for the individual as much as it is for the government. The market is unforgiving. If a state fails to enforce laws and allows people to behave irresponsibly, the consequences will be disastrous for all.
Habibul Haque Khondker is a professor of Sociology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi.
