Community Balance

Individualism
And
Community

Liberty
And
Obligation

The only natural ethical responsibility a person has to anyone else is not to violate the rights of others. We are ethically bound and responsible to not interfere with the life, liberty, security, and property of others without their consent.

The only other obligations a person has are the ones they explicitly consent to. Not to some socially constructed community they were born into.

You choose to be a part of a community. If you make that choice then you are accountable for all agreements you've made in that community. If you can't abide by those agreements, you need to find another community.

Who has the authority to determine someone else's ethical responsibility? Who has the authority to impose (force) their ethics on others?

There are Christians (and other religious people) that have decided that gay people have violated their ethical responsibility to the society. And they, as christians, have the right to hold gay people accountable, by whatever means they deem necessary.

A discussion about accountability should not be condescending. There are 'I' statements. The ones where you say how an action is affecting you and what you will do to keep yourself safe and healthy. It recognizes that you do not have authority over other people's actions, only authority over your response to those actions.

"If the community could really take responsibility about us being honorable to each other, then it doesn’t matter what the legal system does;...there’s actually more certainty and less wrenching if there is a sense of responsibility. We are responsible for the decisions we make with each other."
-Sarah Schulman

The key point is 'we are responsible for the decisions we make with each other'. Not for decisions you make and expect others to just automatically be accountable for because they have some characteristic. That's why communication, equal, honest, and respectful, is key to any relationship or community

Treat others the way they want to be treated

Nietzsche:
...no man has ever done anything that was done wholly for others and with no personal motivation whatever; how, indeed, should a man be able to do something that had no reference to himself, that is to say lacked all inner compulsion (which would have its basis in a personal need)? How could the ego act without the ego?— Human, All Too Human, Sec. 133

Everyone doesn't agree with Nietzsche

Science as shown that humans (and other animals) are 'naturally' capable of altruism and selfishness. Cooperation and competition. Indifference and empathy. It's our dual nature.

There have been plenty of people who have helped others with no thought of themselves; and plenty who have destroyed the lives of others with no remorse. It depends on the person and the situation

And regardless of how naive or childish it may seem, there are plenty of people who have found a place away from the other 7 billion people on this planet that is not in a basement nor under the haze of drugs. And it's their choice.

So, How do I think we can be held accountable to one another to strengthen our community?

Maintain healthy boundaries. Be able to break relations with people who cannot respect your boundaries. Acknowledge other people's equality and autonomy.

What is the quintessential element that ties us all together?

Liberty



No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.

-William Howard Taft