Sunday, December 20, 2009

Power and Responsibility

With great power comes great responsibility. To take up that responsibility is purely upon one's whim.

8 comments:

Niti said...

Nope. Responsibilty comes with power..to take up that power is purely upon one's whim

Srishti said...

Oohh, you finally watched Spiderman?
It was coming on HBO the other day and I decided to watch all three of them in a row.
And btw, don't you think Harry is better looking than Spidey?
Seriously.

Ketan said...

@ Niti:

What you say is also correct since my post and your assertion are not mutually exclusive! :)

Personally I'm so lazy, I wouldn't take up power nor the responsibility that comes with it. ;)

Thanks for your corrective comment.

@ Srishti: No, I didn't watch Spiderman recently. :) I'd watched a couple of parts and remember them just very vaguely. But then that power-responsibility quote is so very famous, anyway!

Yes, Spiderman is not the best looking person. I don't remember who Harry was. Seriously. Was he one of the villain's son?

What do you think of THIS post?!! :P

TC.

Pankaj said...

where does the responsibility come from? who hands it down?

Ketan said...

Pankaj,

Welcome to the blog! And thanks for questioning and resisting brainwashing! ;)

Responsibility that comes bundled with power can be imposed by at least three different sources - either alone or in concert:

1. The legal binding and the threat of punitive action along with assumption of positions of power.

2. Societal codes and the fear of ridicule and ostracization they might induce.

3. One's moral conscience.

Of course, one or all the three (and others that might exist) sources might fail. That's why taking up the said responsibility ends up looking like its taking up is 'elective'. ;)

Thanks for reading and commenting, too! :D

Take care.

Srishti said...

Yes he was the villain's son...also Spidey's best friend!

Okay, about this post. From what I can make out after watching all the superhero movies-
People accept Great Power on a whim; they back out when they realize Great Responsibility.
But they come back after the Learn a Lesson and learn that without them, the world is doomed.

Srishti said...

*they Learn a Lesson

Ketan said...

Srishti,

This post was written from the perspective of real World. :)

So, the issue I was driving at was, why people relinquish only the responsibility, and not the power (unlike the superheroes who also relinquish the power). The problem is this bereft-of-responsibility use of power leads to its abuse. The "whim" part of my post was sarcasm as far as the moral considerations in assumption of power are concerned. :) TC.