Responsibility of Action

Day 1,611, 20:44 • Published in Austria Austria • by Rangeley


All around the world, crimes - some small, some large - are committed. By virtue of the sheer statistics involved, if you were to randomly select examples, you would find they are more often than not committed by a member of the ethnic majority of a nation, against another member of the same ethnic majority of the nation.

And yet, rarely would this lead, for instance, an Austrian to argue that because an Austrian committed a crime against him, he could never forgive “Austrians” - and could never work with “Austrians.” For one thing, they are an Austrian themselves - for another, they likely know other Austrians very well too. Out of this familiarity, they know not all Austrians are the same, and see it would be silly to hold all responsible for the actions of individuals.

But it is much more common for blame to be collectively placed when the crime is committed by someone from “another group.” There is not the same familiarity - after all, they are “different,” perhaps even a bit scary. But it isn’t “more acceptable” when a crime is committed by someone that looks like you - that talks like you. These things don’t lessen the pain they can cause by stealing from you or murdering a loved one. Nor is it any more reasonable to hold another ethnicity collectively responsible, than it is your own.

Cycles of Violence

And yet there can be no denying, there are cycles of violence in this world. A member of one group is killed by another. Revenge is sought, and more are killed. Revenge is in turn sought for these losses, and even more are killed. Situations can escalate - but explaining to a mother that their child was killed because a member one group killed someone in another, does not console them. The lack of justification lays quite apparent.

Some would puff up their chests and say it is the patriotic thing to keep on going - to keep their people in a cycle of violence and go for more kills than the other. These people miss that just as the actions of others led them to become emotional and angry, so too may their actions cause others to become emotional and angry. They miss that their actions not only do not raise the dead, but put more innocent lives in harms way, including people of their own group.

Wise words warn there is no reward merely in loving “your own” - even criminals do this. There is reward to those who can recognize the humanity in other people. There is reward to a patriot that puts his animal emotions behind him and seeks to break from a cycle of violence; seeks to be the better man, and deliver a better future to his nation.

Responsibility

Moving away from the more extreme examples, which I find are not always the most illuminating, there is reward for someone who is not blinded by stereotypes when playing eRepublik. If you come into the game with a set list of eNations you want to be friendly with, and a set list of eNations you would never be friendly with, you already put yourself at a disadvantage. It is like a chess player who decides they will not use their knights because a horse looked at them the wrong way as a child. You miss the reality of the situation in the game.

As noted before, the relationship between eAustria and eSlovakia has been a very good one - one of the strongest we have as an eNation, and one that has delivered clear benefit to our us. The only reasons given up to yesterday for why we should betray them, and more broadly all of ONE, were based on the real life views of some non-real life Austrians; and today we have seen in articles a reminder of this. But people who collectively hold other groups responsible for the actions of individuals, and do not hold themselves responsible for the collective actions of their own group, perpetuate a hypocrisy.

We all are ultimately responsible for our own actions, whether they are positive or negative. We all can make a choice of what path to pursue. We can choose to see the humanity in others, or hide our heads and pretend it is only those we know best that are truly human. It’s up to you. But anyone can love their own.