To believe or not to believe. And to Whom?
We had an interesting discussion this morning about keeping the kitchen dishes clean.
The young man was saying that the dishes must be cleaned only in the dishwasher, as otherwise they would never be clean enough.
The wise man was saying that the standard home grade dishwasher will never do the job as good as himself.
Further discussion clearly demonstrated that neither one, of course, had any way to compare the cleanliness of the dishes, but the real reason for the argument was responsibility.
The young man believed that whoever created the dishwasher was a responsible person and created the product which can be trusted. Therefore no extra responsibility would fall onto him and he was happy with the situation. (After recent few years in college he had a serious reason to believe there are a lot of irresponsible young mans around)
The wise man believed that he is a responsible person and the dishwasher is not even a person and can not be held responsible. Therefore anything doable will be done much better by the wise man.
Who is right?
I would not start here the discussion about water conservation, temperature, and dishwashing standards, but rather ponder for a minute about the responsibility for your own actions.
There are many situations in life where we are choosing to either take responsibility (Challenge common belief) or delegate it (Trust common belief) .
When one has the opinion, he can either aggressively enforce it in the society (everyone should do as myself) or just do it passively for himself.
| Aggressive | ||
| Passive | ||
| Trust | Challenge |
With so many interesting things happening in life now, think where you would put yourself and various groups of social, political and technological activists.
For example:
- Republicans/Democrats
- Pro/Anti Vaccination people
- Global warming activists
- COVID Mask/no mask activists