A General Principle of Modern Society

From the second you are born into this fantastic world, you are confronted by difficult choices and a fair amount of principles - some of which you do not approve of. We are taught how to behave and told that the society expects certain things from you. This is called responsibility.

Each person is an individual, with individual thoughts and individual desires. It lies in the nature of man, the need to follow our dreams and seek what we yearn. If men lived freely, they would indeniably achieve greater happiness, but even so, we have chosen to create this society - as a security system. By living in a society, you exchange your services for the security which you would lack if you were free and on your own.

I feel as if responsibility is a burden which we all must carry, because we owe it to our fellow citizen. From the moment you achieve the ability of free thinking, and you are able to contemplate your own situation and question your own actions, you have that responsibility, seeing as it is often every man for himself, in spite of the laws we have made to ensure a secure environment.

When at last you are emancipated at the age of eighteen, both your parents and the society have expectations - a responsibility - which you need to fulfill in order to maintain respect amongst other individuals. It is perhaps this responsibility which keeps our desires at bay, even though it contradicts our very nature to do so.

Responsibility is in many ways quite similar to what we refer to as popularity, because they both lack a foundation in our innate spirits. For what would happen if our society all of a sudden turned into a utopia, where everyone would be free to follow their innate principles? As long as people still adhered to the thought that they have a certain responsibility to their fellow man - to be socially accepted, they would not turn their backs on those rules and laws on which our society was built.

If we choose to be a part of a community, we sign off our most important birthright: Freedom. However, when we first decide to make this decision, to take this leap of faith and actually rely on other individuals, it is only then we are able to live life the way we have always sought to do.
Last, but not the least, it is important to remember that we all possess the power to change the world. And to recite wise words by one author and cartoonist named Stan Lee:

- "With great powers comes great responsibility."

En liten stil jeg skrev på en èn-økts engelsk-prøve. Vi skulle skrive om ansvar, og hva det innebærer. Eneste kommentaren jeg fikk av læreren var "I am amazed.", og så karakteren 6. Det var jo litt morsomt, hehe.