ils doivent envisager qu'une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d'un grand pouvoir

                                                                                                                 -French National Convention in 1793

It is an interesting fact that the Fundamental Duties got enshrined in our constitution at a much later stage ( 42nd Amendment in 1976) as compared to the Fundamental Rights(1949). The idea behind this introduction of duties as I perceive was to serve as reminders to the citizens about their responsibilities.  The rights bestowed although being fundamental puts unbridled power in the hands of citizens and so it should be balanced by duties which act as the check on the power.

The mirage of power

Power is an elusive word. We may interpret power as that freedom which is enjoyed by a few. As beautifully elucidated by Lord Acton, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  In a thought experiment, let us imagine a hostage situation where you have a group of terrorists who have kept certain civilians as hostages in a hotel. Now the staff of the hotel has the ability to escape the site and flee for life or stay back and ensure that they rescue their guests.  While the former seems a lucrative choice, yet most chose to stay and ensure that the last of the guests are rescued. (Sounds familiar, right!) You will find that two parties had unbridled power - the terrorist and the staff. One had the power to take life while the other had the power to save life. Let me talk about the first group. What did power give them? Power gave them the liberty to take away the lives of strangers.

While for the other set of individuals', power had given them the option to flee or take a leap of faith by risking their lives in saving their fellow men. Let’s weigh the decisions by each set of individuals on a moral balance. The tilt is what makes the difference. What decides the tilt on the scale?

The Uneven Tilt

In mathematics, one often comes across terms like necessary and sufficient conditions. Both of these conditions are complementary to each other. Now in the above example, when power was only the necessary condition the outcome was disorder. How do we reach a state of order? To put it more effectively,

If power is the necessary condition, then what is the sufficient condition?

For the curious mind who is scurrying for the answer, the answer lies at the beginning of this essay.

They must contemplate that a great responsibility is inseparable by product from a great power.

                                                                                                          -French National Convention in 1793

Power the Accelerator, Responsibility the Brake

Power unravels an unknown freedom which an individual was bereft before. But rather than getting carried away by this freedom, responsibility grounds you to your true reality. To put it as a simple analogy of a car one could say that if power is akin to accelerator, then responsibility is like the brake. Both of which are essential for a smooth and safe ride. Responsibility is what we can define as the constrained power.

Echoing the words of the yester year writer Elbert Hubbard, “Responsibility is the price of freedom”. Now let’s break up the word ‘Responsibility’ into two words i.e., response and ability. Let me take the liberty for the time being to interpret responsibility as the ability to respond. The ability to respond to a situation can be treated at various degrees. At the first degree, we see a quick response. At the second degree, we see a delayed response. Finally, at the third degree we see no response. Now the responses have its consequences. Sometimes the person might respond quickly but the consequences would be harmful. At times the person might respond late but the consequences would be altruistic. Even it can happen the other way round.  Sometimes no response is also the best response. How to reach an equilibrium without one being disturbed because of the other?  What is that one instrument that can achieve the twin goals?

Listening to the Conscience

I feel the instrument that acts as a catalyst and a discriminating factor is the ‘conscience’. Some listen to it whereas some just pretend to be deaf. Conscience is like a coal burning alight. Slowly with time, the ash starts covering up the bright coal. Ash is akin to the unbridled power which grows on the conscience up to a point, where the coal is itself imperceptible. But that does not negate the existence of the ash because the harder you blow it with a bellow, sooner is the ash obliterated. What can this bellow and blowing connote to? The process of blowing is analogous to responsibility. Responsibility reveals the conscience, which was hidden by power.

Responsibility at the time of COVID

During the height of the second wave, there was a lot of speculation and heated arguments debating the causes for the sudden surge of virus. Starting from the election rallies in the poll bound states, Kumbh mela, Farmer protest etc. While a majority (especially many at the other end of the corridors of power) blamed the government for giving permission for these activities, I was awestruck by the fact that none talked about the crowd who had assembled for such large gatherings. This is given the fact that the awareness regarding social distancing or wearing masks is common knowledge, considering the yearlong awareness of the same, and we can safely assume that all participants were well aware of this fact.

Here comes the aspect of the responsibility that we as citizens ought to put into practise. It is easy to put blame on everyone and everything for the spread of the virus, and yet be oblivious to our own actions. In another thought experiment think about a state where all the citizens know their responsibilities and have empathy for their fellow beings. Then do we really require all the draconian lockdowns? Do we need to see countless poor people walking barefoot on the road? Do we require such stringent state policing? Things would have run much more smoothly than these difficult times. But one could argue that such a society is indeed an uninhabited place in the wasteland of discarded utopian experiments.

Churchill and Polar Bears

Churchill is a snow-capped town on the Hudson Bay in the far north of Manitoba, Canada. The town is inhabited by a sizable population of polar bears. So, the local practices followed by the residents include leaving the doors of cars unlocked so that their fellow residents of the city can have a quick escape should they come face-to-face with a polar bear.

For most people who live in Churchill, it's just a common thing. Now if we rationally analyse it, there is the big problem of moral hazard playing out here and despite knowing that people continue to do so even if it means a possibility of their cars being stolen. This example might offer a counterintuitive notion to the argument raised in the previous section. Hence one could say that such a progress towards a heightened social awareness may not be that utopian but could be imbibed through collective understanding and practise.

Empathy as Duty

While duty may seem to be a word bedecked with a lot of baggage, why can’t we interpret it as being empathetic to fellow beings. This would be a Pareto optimal position since it leads to a win-win situation. For example, if I follow the COVID health norms not only am I putting others at safety but in that way, I am protecting myself. Hence empathy though being an altruistic trait is indeed profitable for all in the long run.

In the literature across time and space, we often come across the stages where humanity reaches its zenith. Some call it the Golden Age, some Ram Rajya. They define it where there is only happiness, no strife, no poverty, no unemployment. This state, though could be argued to be a theoretical possibility, cannot be achieved by mere physical prosperity, but through a heightened collective awareness. While Gandhiji called it Antyodaya, the American philosopher John Rawls elaborated that vision in his theory of justice with much more rigour. If the idea of individuals as trustees of societies could be materialised then the world would definitely have much lesser problems to worry about.

Right and the Responsibility

On a concluding note, it is imperative for all of us to ponder deep within to remind ourselves of the wisdom spoken by John Rockefeller, “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.”

Somewhere I think I have fulfilled my responsibility of pondering upon the greatest secret of mankind. But what you do with it is the power that is only bestowed to you.

 

The author wishes to thank Dr A. S. Vishwanathan for the valuable inputs.

 

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