It seems that personal responsibility would foster social responsibility. Accepting, in most cases, an individual’s actions will have an impact beyond the individual, I believe that most individuals will choose to avoid or at least mitigate harm to others. Taking it one step further, I believe that most of us will help a suffering stranger when we meet one. I’m pretty sure that almost all of us will give what we can afford to aid someone in need. The level and manner of giving is inconsequential, coffee to a neighbor who is without or a large donation to a charity- we like to help.
How have we reached the point where our society is not outraged by the hunger and need in this once great nation? How did we become inured to poverty and suffering?
Social responsibility is personal responsibility.
elroyjones 
Now you’re talking (& asking the right questions).
A partial answer: we have allowed ourselves to be deceived – by the media, by stuff, be our own selfishness.
It is not society that should be outraged but each and every one of us – each individual. Society is composed of us. WE NEED TO BE/BECOME OUTRAGED! Are you (the reader)? How much? Enough to do what?
Hear the piper coming? Time to wake up.
M
Individuals have been paying attention all along but until recently there haven’t been enough credible individuals to claim the attention of the masses.
From what I see, there still aren’t.
There is not enough room left in all your blog storage to answer these questions…
Rhetorical questions anyhow. We know how this moment arrived.
I see it as an erosion of civic associations. Membership is down in groups that do well and we, as a society, are not a cohesive unit but are all out for number 1. Doing one’s civic duty is no longer considered part of daily life as it was with our parents. We have become selfish.
I agree. I don’t belong to any organizations. Part of that is society is more transient than it was in our parents’ and grandparents’ time so we don’t have the connection with our neighbors that we once had.
I just couldn’t manage group participation, makes my stomach knot just thinking of it!
Mine, too. We’re isolationists at heart. We live on our own little islands, in our own little cabins in the woods, and we don’t want anyone intruding. We have put up invisible “Do Not Enter” signs all around us. My neighbors don’t cross the road to see me and I don’t cross the road to see them. And, there are only 3 houses on our road, all owned by my landlady. So what does that tell you?
We prefer to invite our guests???
I wonder… I’ve always been told that we’re social beings. Could it be that what we’re seeing is a defensive reaction to being over-stimulated? Or is it that (due to easy transportation) we no longer know how (or try) to deal with each other – with people who are not like us (in class, or looks, or profession, etc.)?
M
Some people may be overstimulated. Most of the people I know are spending more hours in the workplace than their parents and grandparents did. Weekends are no longer devoted to home and family. If I’m not working, I’m sleeping, or doing routine chores after I work and before I sleep.
It seems like people in this country are spending more time with people who come from different backgrounds because of easy transportation. My stepson attended high school with lots of Chinese kids and my niece went to high school in a mid-sized city that had kids of many nationalities; when school let out at the end of the day the still shots could have been in National Geographic. Some of my in-laws are Thai. People who are different are no longer exotic.
Technology may have a lot to do with a decrease in physical social interaction; people are sitting next to their companions texting and talking on their cell phones, ignoring the the person before their very eyes. I talk with a lot of strangers who appear to be receptive to spontaneous conversation and I’ve noticed that people light up if a smile is passed to them.
No one has mentioned the role the evil Internet plays in all this.
I didn’t come right out and accuse the internet but it could be included in that broad technology category. The internet knows exactly what role it has played in this travesty; indiscriminately spreading free information around, getting people all riled up, thinking they have the RIGHT to be free, regardless of their socio-economic status!