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Much is made of the need to take personal responsibility for determining the course of one's life. To be clear, I am all for that.
The failure to take personal responsibility and instead live a life of dependence out of a sense of entitlement is frequently cited as the root of less fortunate people's problems, specifically at this moment in time with regard to black Americans as an outgrowth of the unrest in Ferguson after the shooting of Michael Brown.
I wonder if anyone ever thinks about how long it takes an individual/family to develop the value of personal responsibility being a good thing once all personal responsibility has been stripped from said individuals/families. In other words, if you or your family were taken into slavery, taken to a foreign country where you don't know the language, forced to labor with no wages, subjected to subhuman conditions, and living in the abject hopelessness of slavery including having your family broken apart........how many generations would it take you and your family to recover the will to take personal responsibility for your life once you were set free?
For black American's descended from slaves(or anyone with a similar history), feel free to share you/your familys actual history of how long it took to gain an average or successful life above poverty.
Much is made of the need to take personal responsibility for determining the course of one's life. To be clear, I am all for that.
The failure to take personal responsibility and instead live a life of dependence out of a sense of entitlement is frequently cited as the root of less fortunate people's problems, specifically at this moment in time with regard to black Americans as an outgrowth of the unrest in Ferguson after the shooting of Michael Brown.
I wonder if anyone ever thinks about how long it takes an individual/family to develop the value of personal responsibility being a good thing once all personal responsibility has been stripped from said individuals/families. In other words, if you or your family were taken into slavery, taken to a foreign country where you don't know the language, forced to labor with no wages, subjected to subhuman conditions, and living in the abject hopelessness of slavery including having your family broken apart........how many generations would it take you and your family to recover the will to take personal responsibility for your life once you were set free?
For black American's descended from slaves(or anyone with a similar history), feel free to share you/your familys actual history of how long it took to gain an average or successful life above poverty.
Slavery was outlawed in the United States 151 years ago. Doubtful anyone on this forum under the age of 90 even had a grandparent or even great grandparent who knew about slavery directly.
That said, while not a slave, I grew up in dirt poor, dysfunctional surroundings and was working by age 11 to help pay my mother's bills. I played the woe is me entitlement game for a while, but at 20, I joined the military, and my sad sacking days were gone because I was in a setting where nobody gave a crap about my excuses, my self-pity or anything else I had on my mind. Shutting up and doing my job is what was expected, so I did. Took less than a year to get rid of most of the self-pity and replace it with personal responsibility.
What boot camp and schools didn't beat out of me, 5 years on a submarine did. In my entire family, the three most die hard people where personal responsibility and lack of sympathy towards whining are concerned are me, my uncle and my grandfather, and not surprisingly, we were the only three who served in the military.
It takes an individual no time at all to become personally responsible. Put them in a sink-or-swim situation of high expectations, and they'll typically rise to the challenge. Consistently make excuses for them, feel sorry for them, and rationalize/subsidize their failure, and they'll typically fall to your lack of expectation.
Much is made of the need to take personal responsibility for determining the course of one's life. To be clear, I am all for that.
The failure to take personal responsibility and instead live a life of dependence out of a sense of entitlement is frequently cited as the root of less fortunate people's problems, specifically at this moment in time with regard to black Americans as an outgrowth of the unrest in Ferguson after the shooting of Michael Brown.
I wonder if anyone ever thinks about how long it takes an individual/family to develop the value of personal responsibility being a good thing once all personal responsibility has been stripped from said individuals/families. In other words, if you or your family were taken into slavery, taken to a foreign country where you don't know the language, forced to labor with no wages, subjected to subhuman conditions, and living in the abject hopelessness of slavery including having your family broken apart........how many generations would it take you and your family to recover the will to take personal responsibility for your life once you were set free?
For black American's descended from slaves(or anyone with a similar history), feel free to share you/your familys actual history of how long it took to gain an average or successful life above poverty.
This raises some good questions, but I don't think that explains it well. In the 50's, 60's etc., 60 years closer to slavery than today, the strength of black families in general and personal responsibility was tremendous. Since then, there have been a number of influences that have a more proximal impact to the situation today.
When people lose hope for a better future, they also lose the drive for personal responsibility. This is not going to get better as long as our median wages are flat or falling, and the people at the top are experiencing unprecedented income growth.
Much is made of the need to take personal responsibility for determining the course of one's life. To be clear, I am all for that.
The failure to take personal responsibility and instead live a life of dependence out of a sense of entitlement is frequently cited as the root of less fortunate people's problems, specifically at this moment in time with regard to black Americans as an outgrowth of the unrest in Ferguson after the shooting of Michael Brown.
I wonder if anyone ever thinks about how long it takes an individual/family to develop the value of personal responsibility being a good thing once all personal responsibility has been stripped from said individuals/families. In other words, if you or your family were taken into slavery, taken to a foreign country where you don't know the language, forced to labor with no wages, subjected to subhuman conditions, and living in the abject hopelessness of slavery including having your family broken apart........how many generations would it take you and your family to recover the will to take personal responsibility for your life once you were set free?
For black American's descended from slaves(or anyone with a similar history), feel free to share you/your familys actual history of how long it took to gain an average or successful life above poverty.
You are leaving out the fact that family in the black community, in general, was much stronger & whole a few decades ago.
Don't have to go back over a century.
Seems the "War on Poverty" put a twist in the mix that turned out to be detrimental in the long run.
Slavery was outlawed in the United States 151 years ago. Doubtful anyone on this forum under the age of 90 even had a grandparent or even great grandparent who knew about slavery directly.
That said, while not a slave, I grew up in dirt poor, dysfunctional surroundings and was working by age 11 to help pay my mother's bills. I played the woe is me entitlement game for a while, but at 20, I joined the military, and my sad sacking days were gone because I was in a setting where nobody gave a crap about my excuses, my self-pity or anything else I had on my mind. Shutting up and doing my job is what was expected, so I did. Took less than a year to get rid of most of the self-pity and replace it with personal responsibility.
What boot camp and schools didn't beat out of me, 5 years on a submarine did. In my entire family, the three most die hard people where personal responsibility and lack of sympathy towards whining are concerned are me, my uncle and my grandfather, and not surprisingly, we were the only three who served in the military.
It takes an individual no time at all to become personally responsible. Put them in a sink-or-swim situation of high expectations, and they'll typically rise to the challenge. Consistently make excuses for them, feel sorry for them, and rationalize/subsidize their failure, and they'll typically fall to your lack of expectation.
Well stated. The military took the kinks out of a lot of us. It has its own unique way of making a man or woman out of its service members. There are a whole lot of folks who gripe and bemoan their environment and lifestyles that would garner great benefit from putting on a uniform.
You are leaving out the fact that family in the black community, in general, was much stronger & whole a few decades ago.
Don't have to go back over a century.
Seems the "War on Poverty" put a twist in the mix that turned out to be detrimental in the long run.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
3,997 posts, read 4,141,865 times
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Not much to tell.... picture is of great-granfather before he was killed on the rig leaving grandma and five small children in the oilfields. Born into oil field trash.... still there. But with each successive generation and a lot of hard work, even without college educations, hubby and I have managed to survive and built a comfortable (not lavish) life. So yes... I'm a big supporter of Personal Responsibility. (I love genealogy!) So I'm looking forward to reading all your stories![IMG][/IMG]
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