Exploring What Is Collective Responsibility and Its Usage
Everyone has their own ideologies. When you consider yourself a collectivist, you and many others share the same principles. For example, collective responsibility, collective norms, and co-operation.
Collective responsibility is one of the principles pertaining to a collectivist. While holding on to collective responsibility, you are believing that an entire group or society is responsible for the decisions an individual might make. This can also present the opportunity for people to go against the group. Deeming them punishable for their actions. Making mature, rational decisions as a group or a whole is what brings out collective responsibility. Collective responsibility is a term that the philosopher John Stuart Mill would have agreed with for his ideologies on collectivism. He believed that the society should work as a whole and only have government step in when there is a potential risk. By defining his ideology, it makes sense to say that by being a part of the society, everyone should follow the rules of the society. This will help you achieve good, rather than going against the group and facing the consequences, as I mentioned before.
An example where collective responsibility is used is a hospital. Within the community of a hospital, everyone is working together to make sure that all of their patients as well as other citizens of the community don’t get sick. In a hospital, it is the staff’s responsibility to make sure they take care of everyone, making this a collective responsibility. Another principle collectivist may share as well as believe in, are collective norms. This is the belief that the group or society deems to be acceptable. Collective norms are important because it is either seen as something that the group or society believes is acceptable or unacceptable. These rules or viewpoints are good because they can help control people within a society. Some of the categories that these rules fit in could be conduct, values, and even appearance. These aren’t necessarily as strict as laws, but they are considered to be in the best interest for the society or group. An example of what society would deem normal on a day to day basis would be being courteous to others around you. This could be holding the door open for someone, or even just saying hello to the others around you. Being polite is normal for society. It’s not a law, which means it isn’t something you have to obey, but it is the norm to be polite.
There are many types of groups or communities that are based on cooperation. By people cooperating, they can open the doors to encourage more ideas and viewpoints, as well as the opportunity for everyone to learn from one another. Being able to cooperate is a life skill that everyone should learn. In many different work environments, you have to cooperate with one another. Collectivist are all about working together and helping each other out. So being able to cooperate is important. This is because if you are not able to work together, that could possibly cause conflicts. When looking back at the philosopher John Locke’s beliefs, a couple of things can be taken away from them. Locke had said that “humans are social animals”, therefore his idea correlates great with the idea of cooperation. To be a part of a socializing group, you must cooperate. Even though Locke did a “right wing” perspective on life, he still said that “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions”. This could still be thought of as some rules a collectivist society would consider appropriate. An example of a community showing cooperation is a police force. Everyone within a police force has different jobs, but they all cooperate to figure out different crimes. Because everyone has different duties and ideas, they still all work together to problem solve. This could possibly result in everyone learning about other people’s viewpoints and ideas.
