One might wonder what it means to be a Citizen in society. According to the Dictionary.com Unabridged, a citizen is, “a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection.” This definition implies a close tie that binds people to administration--a sort of two-way street between citizens and their government. There are certain responsibilities to which both are obliged to uphold in order for societies to flourish and prosper. These responsibilities differ over a broad range of interests, rights, and liberties that may be influenced by and beneficial to the people, the government itself, or both; provided the proper System of Government is implemented which allows Citizens direct access to decisions that affect changes in society. Over the centuries, the roles that citizens have played in government have evolved—just as the separate vicissitudes in governments of entire nations have continually evolved; sometimes forging barricades of apprehension impenetrable to the ignorant, and propitious only to the select few who command from within these walls. From Socrates, in the fifth century B.C., to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and 60’s, to the high-tech twenty-first century—where, despite the rapid progression in technology, only some of us are fortunate enough to have the luxury of enjoying even the most basic Rights and Liberties. Humankind’s history provides crystal clear evidence of the struggle to overcome tyranny by oppressive institutions. Through the works of many of the most revolutionary thinkers, a vivid portrait has been drawn of the innate duties and responsibilities citizens must carry out to provide a progressive future for Posterity. The journey to understanding what is right and wrong, just and unjust, fair and unfair has been quite an arduous undertaking. Ahead, the path has yet to be constructed; and that is what we must never forget. The future is what we make it—a product of the present, influenced by the past. Perhaps the most important obligation of citizens can be determined as being Unity; for, Unity provides an impervious force field that deflects any attempts to impede advancement. By and large, the roles and responsibilities of citizens remain exceedingly crucial in the fight to provide a better tomorrow for all generations to come. As the tension grows between individuals, citizens and government, and even governments themselves, we must constantly remind ourselves of the common bond that each and every single person on Earth shares: the fact that we all comprise Humankind; not just a privileged few.
(The following three works are available in a book entitled "50 Essays" which should be available at most college campuses.)
In Plato's classic work "Crito," Socrates argued convincingly of what is right and what is wrong. He believed in relying on the guidance of the “one”, with an assumption that “there is someone with expert knowledge” to determine case-by-case whether or not a person’s actions were justifiable. But, we all know where assumptions lead us—don’t we? “What we ought to consider,” Socrates asserts, “is not so much what people in general will say about us but how we stand with the expert in right and wrong, the one authority, who represents the actual truth." He placed absolute confidence in the Laws, no matter how unjust. “There is no sense in which wrongdoing is good…,” he confidently proclaims. But the icing on the cake would have to be the way he, through a highly provocative, equally unlikely, hypothetical scenario, conveyed the importance of conforming to the Laws of the State.
Look at it this way. Suppose that while we were preparing to run away from here (or however one should describe it) the Laws and Constitution of Athens were to come and confront us and ask this question: “Now Socrates, what are you proposing to do? Can you deny that by this act which you are contemplating you intend, so far as you have the power, to destroy us, the Laws, and the whole State as well? Do you imagine that a city can continue to exist and not be turned upside down, if the legal judgments which are pronounced in it have no force but are nullified and destroyed by private persons?”
Compelling, isn't it? However, this particular account is but a supposition—simple conjecture which introduces the possibility of being caught, all the while neglecting to acknowledge the equal, if not more likely, probability of getting away. The way Socrates tells the story bears stark resemblance to what Stefanie Ericsson, in her essay entitled, “The Ways We Lie,” calls Omission. In this revealing, often humorous explanation, she investigates the many different instances in which people lie to one another. Exemplifying everyday situations alongside historical data, Ericsson is able to easily relate with the reader by declaring up front that, “We lie. We all do. We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid confrontation, we spare people’s feelings, we conveniently forget, we keep secrets, we justify lying to the big-guy institutions." As strong as this accusation might sound, it is very true. We have all lied in one, if not all, of the many ways she describes. But Ericsson warns, “Our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to a fish." So maybe we are walking around in an integrity-bereft haze of lies and deception that owe homage to people’s feelings rather than what may be right; but that does not mean we cannot open a window for some “fresh air.” In a rather Socratic manner, she concludes by asking, “How much do we tolerate before we become sick and tired of being sick and tired? When will we stand up and declare our right to trust…When do we stop turning over our personal power and responsibility to liars?"
In “The Insufficiency of Honesty,” Stephen L. Carter explores some common misconceptions of the correlation between honesty and integrity. He, by using three examples, including that of a man on his deathbed telling his wife he had cheated thirty-five years before, explains that just because a person tells the truth does not mean that it was done so with integrity. Carter states, “Arranging his own emotional affairs to ease his transition to death, he has shifted to his wife the burden of confusion and pain, perhaps for the rest of her life." Although he gives circumstantial evidence in his essay for why one should choose to withhold such information, Socrates would probably agree with a decision to be honest at all times, even at the expense of feelings, because it is what can be considered as right and just. Carter continues with another story of a man, under the impression that women are incapable of hard work, who discriminates against women by assigning them less intensive tasks at his workplace. “The manager,” he states, “fails the most basic test of integrity. The question is not whether his actions are consistent with what he most deeply believes but whether he has done the hard work of discerning whether what he most deeply believes is right." In his third example, Carter uses a woman, told by a man she engages in sex with that if she becomes pregnant, she is basically on her own, to demonstrate how there is a “version of responsibility [which] assumes that not all moral obligations stem from consent or from a stated intention." He ends by saying, “Nowadays, here in America, people seem to spend their time thinking of even cleverer ways to avoid their obligations, instead of doing what integrity commands and fulfilling them. And all too often honesty is their excuse."
The problem with lying is that the more one lies, the more distant one becomes from reality, which is another form of a lie Ericsson describes as delusion. All too often, we think that by crawling into someone else’s skin, we can escape the wake of consequences left behind by our deceptive actions. From individual situations, all the way up to governments, this method has never ceased to fail. When we continue to hand over roles and responsibilities to government, what happens when our hands are empty? I propose three steps to follow in order for Humankind to secure a prosperous future for global society. First and foremost, we must always remember and utilize the power of Unity. All across the board, from health care to money, even government; issues can be resolved through diplomatic Unity. Unification ensures that secondly, our Rights, Liberties and Freedoms are never abridged, but are protected, as long as the actions citizens perform do not conflict with any laws, and provided these laws are just and fair, as decided by the people as a whole. Thirdly, building the foundation for advancement on a solid, supportive governmental system that advocates the educational system as the key component to the encouragement which forms the desire to become knowledgeable, ensures the protection of Human and Civil Rights and Liberties, and solves practically all the other pertinent issues we now face. Neither of these systems should ever be based almost entirely on finances; if at all. Depriving people of these most fundamental rights—the right to learn and the right to have a say in government—due to a figment of the imagination, is perhaps the best example of unjust actions that society allows continuance of. If the Socratic Method works for you, then, look at it this way: the more activities, situations, information, stories and interests one is introduced to, the more likely it is that person will move on and become an integral part of the continued advancement of society as a whole. It is time to start thinking about the next generation. We have a responsibility to our Posterity. Considering the rapid ascension of technological advancement, this responsibility is rooted in the idea that we are perhaps the most important generation of Humankind to have ever walked (or blasted off of) the face of Earth. We currently have the means to destroy ourselves completely. However, we equally have the means to provide health care, food, water and education to every single person on this planet. So, what is stopping us from doing just that? Why do thousands of men, women and children die every day from starvation or preventable causes that most countries simply take for granted? How is it that Human Beings are still bought and sold into slavery in this day and age? Honestly, a thousand pages would never be enough to write all of the questions that remain unanswered or ignored, just like the people being subjugated in war-torn countries. Even if we were to write down these questions it is not enough to simply acknowledge and agree with them. It is the action to change this incivility which becomes the benchmark for an effective campaign against despotism. Martin Luther King Jr., an advocate of non-violent protest, said it best in, “Letters from Birmingham Jail.” “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself..."
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