The Iceberg of Personal Responsibility

Blogger Dell Gines weighs in on the issue of personal responsibility. How much of what we do is under our own control (the ice above the water), and how much is a result of our environment (the ice below the water).
“The rejection of individual accountability as a framework for human existence in effect animalizes us in ways worse than when whites called us sub-human 3/4 human monkeys. It tells us that we have no control over desires and behaviors ergo we are bound by a ’social fatalism’ which states our environment determines us as opposed to us determining our environment. This is the foundation of liberalism as it relates to blacks which must be rejected if we are to reign as men not as the whipping boys of paternalistic leadership.”

“HOWEVER socialization and the effects of negative socialization, rooted in racisms mentally debilitating powers CANNOT be discounted. The difference is in where you put the emphasis and this is where it gets tricky.”

“Picture an iceberg. Those of you who know about icebergs know that only 25% of an iceberg is above water, the rest of the massive block of ice is beneath the water (ask the Titanic). It is my strongly held belief that human behavior as it relates to individual accountability and social environment are similar in relation to an iceberg only in reverse. I believe that 25% of all behavior is irrevocably directly related to personal accountability. I believe the other 75% of our humanity is determined by social inputs that shape how we express our personhood.