on owning responsibility
I was just musing about this question that I found online, which was required to apply for a scholarship:
"If you had the power to change any event in history, which would you choose to change, and why?"
Somehow, the first two people that came to mind are John Lennon and John F. Kennedy, both of whom had been immensely influential in their particular fields, and also, unfortunately, both of whose lives were tragically ended by a gunshot.
Don't you think that makes a person so powerful in a sinister way? Perhaps out of a whim, a fascination, one can just whip out a gun and shoot a person - a very influential person, and it changes the entire course of history. But in the same manner, words of encouragement can uplift people - exactly what the two aforementioned people have accomplished. Through a person's life, a decision made, a lyric written, a song sung, one can fire the hearts of countless people in their generation, as well as the next. But that bullet that killed them is still penetrating generations of people who are being deprived of that opportunity, that chance to say that hey, I was there when so-and-so was alive. Or, more specifically, in my case, I was sitting in front of the television one night, surfing channels, and saw planes crashing into a tall New York building. Live. Now that's something that people won't be able to feel in the future. To us World War 2 was horrible. Perhaps some of us might have the idea that Hitler was a terror. But how so? How did they feel? In the same way, that gunshot is still wounding and killing people to this very day. Don't get me wrong, the loud bang had dissipated long ago. It ended when people stopped crying and mourning, and decided to look on to their futures. But still, one has to look back to see the mess that envelops us, the mess that was caused by one man, one mind. The mess that cannot be undone.
But I'm not here to solely talk about the power of a single person to change the world. Perhaps you've heard of it before, perhaps it's simply a cliche to you now. Perhaps you have yet to experience it.
Rather, I'm here to tackle responsibility and the notion of being responsible for a thing, an idea, or a phenomenon that one might have caused. Really, does anybody care anymore? Sure, people take lots of credit for objects or ideas that affect the society in a positive way, or in a way that is very influential. Take for instance the iPod and Steve Jobs. It's something that people will look back on forever as a moment of industrial genius. And of course, Steve Jobs is reaping his rewards: revenue, endorsements, expansion, and numerous appearances on publications and television. Great. Genius = popularity. The lines between the geeks and the cool dudes have been blurred. Yay for geeks. But then how about the man who invented the nuclear bomb? Military genius? check. Revolutionary? check. Popular? well, not really. Infamous/notorious? perhaps. Well, nobody really knows who he is. But everybody will look at him with an eyebrow raised when the item "created the first nuclear bomb" appears on his resume. As a counter-example, there's Alfred Nobel. Perhaps you've heard of the Nobel Prizes. Good stuff. But what did he do? significant? you bet. He was actually an armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. Not exactly the kind of stuff you would want to see kids running around with. In fact, everytime we encounter his discovery nowadays, we dispatch an army of policemen to surround it and dispose of it as quickly as possible. And yet despite the negative connotations surrounding a dynamite, like a bomb, or a gun, or a bullet, we never look back at who was the mind behind it. Sure, maybe it wasn't his intention to create such weapons for violence. But it should have been a responsibility, to say the least, to note that its corruption would have made violence possible. And it is.
But no, I do not blame them for the condition of the world right now. They were just doing their jobs, right? And in the same way we look at Michael Jackson as the pinnacle of pop culture, the point onwards where instead of looking forward, people would look back and look up on (as a pop star, not necessarily as a role model), one day we may look back on Steve Jobs and revere him as the man who revolutionized the portability of music. Sure, he wasn't the one who invented it, but he brought it to a level where from then onwards, everyone would just look up to it (especially with the iPhone hitting the stores this June. $499 for 4GB! OUCH!). However, as the world celebrates the idea, We neglect the framework, the foundations, the catalyst that made discovery possible. And that is where the inventors and innovators come into place.
In the back of his mind, the guys who made the first computer are looking down on us, thinking that they have made our lives more convenient. And they have (even dangerously convenient at times), and I am forever grateful to them for it, whoever they may be. See? when we think computer, we only think Bill Gates, thank you for Microsoft, or Steve Jobs, thank you for the sleek and sexy Mac OS, but how about the computer itself?
In the same manner, wouldn't the dude who invented firearms be responsible for what has happened to all the wars, and all the assassinations? according to www.silk-road.com,
"The Chinese adapted their primitive catapults to eventually
develop a true gun with a metal barrel, gunpowder and a projectile
by the 12th century. It is believed that the first gun
was found in the early 1970s at Pan-la-ch'eng-tzu village, Manchuria,
and dated to around 1290 A.D." So maybe there's a guy out there somewhere who's the mastermind to all this, somebody who doesn't even know that he is. Imagine that fellow eons ago who mixed stuff around and invented the gun, looking down on the world right now, seeing that his invention has achieved a state of infamous immortality. His ideas have killed presidents, leaders, and other people of influence.
You might say that it's the assassin's fault: That is exactly my point. We celebrate ONLY ideas. And there is something wrong with that. Without that rifle at hand, Lee Harvey Oswald or Mark David Chapman couldn't have done anything. They were powerless without it. Sometimes ideas are useless if they are not acted upon. And they can only be done if there was a way - one which has been devised through a series of inventions and ideas made before them (For instance, it is claimed that John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, was motivated by J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye).
And yet nobody knows who created guns and ammunition. So there's nobody left to blame.
Or you can blame the Chinese. Sure. what a joke.
Ok, that was my extremist take on responsibility. thanks for allowing me to waste your time yet again.
I'M OUT!!!
"If you had the power to change any event in history, which would you choose to change, and why?"
Somehow, the first two people that came to mind are John Lennon and John F. Kennedy, both of whom had been immensely influential in their particular fields, and also, unfortunately, both of whose lives were tragically ended by a gunshot.
Don't you think that makes a person so powerful in a sinister way? Perhaps out of a whim, a fascination, one can just whip out a gun and shoot a person - a very influential person, and it changes the entire course of history. But in the same manner, words of encouragement can uplift people - exactly what the two aforementioned people have accomplished. Through a person's life, a decision made, a lyric written, a song sung, one can fire the hearts of countless people in their generation, as well as the next. But that bullet that killed them is still penetrating generations of people who are being deprived of that opportunity, that chance to say that hey, I was there when so-and-so was alive. Or, more specifically, in my case, I was sitting in front of the television one night, surfing channels, and saw planes crashing into a tall New York building. Live. Now that's something that people won't be able to feel in the future. To us World War 2 was horrible. Perhaps some of us might have the idea that Hitler was a terror. But how so? How did they feel? In the same way, that gunshot is still wounding and killing people to this very day. Don't get me wrong, the loud bang had dissipated long ago. It ended when people stopped crying and mourning, and decided to look on to their futures. But still, one has to look back to see the mess that envelops us, the mess that was caused by one man, one mind. The mess that cannot be undone.
But I'm not here to solely talk about the power of a single person to change the world. Perhaps you've heard of it before, perhaps it's simply a cliche to you now. Perhaps you have yet to experience it.
Rather, I'm here to tackle responsibility and the notion of being responsible for a thing, an idea, or a phenomenon that one might have caused. Really, does anybody care anymore? Sure, people take lots of credit for objects or ideas that affect the society in a positive way, or in a way that is very influential. Take for instance the iPod and Steve Jobs. It's something that people will look back on forever as a moment of industrial genius. And of course, Steve Jobs is reaping his rewards: revenue, endorsements, expansion, and numerous appearances on publications and television. Great. Genius = popularity. The lines between the geeks and the cool dudes have been blurred. Yay for geeks. But then how about the man who invented the nuclear bomb? Military genius? check. Revolutionary? check. Popular? well, not really. Infamous/notorious? perhaps. Well, nobody really knows who he is. But everybody will look at him with an eyebrow raised when the item "created the first nuclear bomb" appears on his resume. As a counter-example, there's Alfred Nobel. Perhaps you've heard of the Nobel Prizes. Good stuff. But what did he do? significant? you bet. He was actually an armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. Not exactly the kind of stuff you would want to see kids running around with. In fact, everytime we encounter his discovery nowadays, we dispatch an army of policemen to surround it and dispose of it as quickly as possible. And yet despite the negative connotations surrounding a dynamite, like a bomb, or a gun, or a bullet, we never look back at who was the mind behind it. Sure, maybe it wasn't his intention to create such weapons for violence. But it should have been a responsibility, to say the least, to note that its corruption would have made violence possible. And it is.
But no, I do not blame them for the condition of the world right now. They were just doing their jobs, right? And in the same way we look at Michael Jackson as the pinnacle of pop culture, the point onwards where instead of looking forward, people would look back and look up on (as a pop star, not necessarily as a role model), one day we may look back on Steve Jobs and revere him as the man who revolutionized the portability of music. Sure, he wasn't the one who invented it, but he brought it to a level where from then onwards, everyone would just look up to it (especially with the iPhone hitting the stores this June. $499 for 4GB! OUCH!). However, as the world celebrates the idea, We neglect the framework, the foundations, the catalyst that made discovery possible. And that is where the inventors and innovators come into place.
In the back of his mind, the guys who made the first computer are looking down on us, thinking that they have made our lives more convenient. And they have (even dangerously convenient at times), and I am forever grateful to them for it, whoever they may be. See? when we think computer, we only think Bill Gates, thank you for Microsoft, or Steve Jobs, thank you for the sleek and sexy Mac OS, but how about the computer itself?
In the same manner, wouldn't the dude who invented firearms be responsible for what has happened to all the wars, and all the assassinations? according to www.silk-road.com,
"The Chinese adapted their primitive catapults to eventually
develop a true gun with a metal barrel, gunpowder and a projectile
by the 12th century. It is believed that the first gun
was found in the early 1970s at Pan-la-ch'eng-tzu village, Manchuria,
and dated to around 1290 A.D." So maybe there's a guy out there somewhere who's the mastermind to all this, somebody who doesn't even know that he is. Imagine that fellow eons ago who mixed stuff around and invented the gun, looking down on the world right now, seeing that his invention has achieved a state of infamous immortality. His ideas have killed presidents, leaders, and other people of influence.
You might say that it's the assassin's fault: That is exactly my point. We celebrate ONLY ideas. And there is something wrong with that. Without that rifle at hand, Lee Harvey Oswald or Mark David Chapman couldn't have done anything. They were powerless without it. Sometimes ideas are useless if they are not acted upon. And they can only be done if there was a way - one which has been devised through a series of inventions and ideas made before them (For instance, it is claimed that John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, was motivated by J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye).
And yet nobody knows who created guns and ammunition. So there's nobody left to blame.
Or you can blame the Chinese. Sure. what a joke.
Ok, that was my extremist take on responsibility. thanks for allowing me to waste your time yet again.
I'M OUT!!!
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