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    Social responsibility: We need more and realize less
    Social responsibility: We need more and realize less
    Social responsibility: We need more and realize less
    Ebook103 pages54 minutes

    Social responsibility: We need more and realize less

    By Hans-Peter Hummel

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    About this ebook

    The author explains why social responsibility is essential for our survival and why egoism engulfs us in the abyss.
    We need a lot of socially responsible people but fewer and fewer of us are able to act appropriately. This process is determined by the system but we can slow down this development.
    What are possible reasons for this process? And what should we do to support socially responsible behavior?
    The author provides answers to these questions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBooks on Demand
    Release dateJul 25, 2017
    ISBN9783744807654
    Social responsibility: We need more and realize less

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      Book preview

      Social responsibility - Hans-Peter Hummel

      literature

      1 Social responsibility as a rising challenge

      Social responsibility means to assume responsibility for our own activities, attitudes, thoughts, etc. and partly the responsibility for other people. The responsibility for ourselves is important to take over responsibility for others.

      The responsibility for others appears when our influence on them in a specific sub-area is greater than their influence on us. We have a (determining) influence on what the others plan, what they decide, how they act, etc. We reduce their freedom with our influence, with our power, and we have to assume the responsibility for this influence, for this power².

      Our responsibility for others has always to do with our power and freedom, and – as a consequence – with our possibilities to reduce the freedom and the power of other people. In every social context an extension of power and freedom on the one hand reduces the power and freedom on the other hand. Power and freedom are only shifted from one system to another – the total quantity remains the same.

      Freedom and power interact positively – the greater our freedom, all the more power we can realize and vice versa.

      We as powerful people should answer questions such as: Which effects have my decision and my behavior on other actors? Are negative consequences for some people or other systems appropriate in a general view? Can I compensate negative effects during the time? Do I take advantage of some people or target groups?

      We take over power and freedom from others and fill the gap with responsibility.

      Figure 1: Social responsibility depending on power and freedom (an illustration)

      The interplay between power, freedom and responsibility in a social context is only one challenge. Our environment reduces our possibilities to achieve our objectives in a substantially planned direction, because our world is becoming more complex, and with a greater complexity we will be having more problems to achieve our goals by planned activities. In a complex world a wing beat of a butterfly can cause a severe storm, and we do not know the reasons. We recognize the results. The processes are in a black box. We will decreasingly understand what is happening around us. The extent of a black box will increase, and our power and freedom will decrease the more complexity rises.

      Figure 2: The relationship between complexity, the own exertion of influence and system-specific processes of self-regulation (an illustration)

      We will predict the future less and less often and the period of time for a more or less ensured prediction is becoming even shorter. We will be depending on our environment in a waxing extent.

      In consequence of this development we are going to assume less and less often the social responsibility for our activities.

      We notice that the environment around us get even more confusing and we stand to lose orientation and certainty.

      In a confusing world a lot of us tend to retreat and wish for an easier world with a higher stability.

      We are susceptible to statements and promises of people who give (supposedly) easy solutions for complex problems. There is a danger that we follow people who give a feeling of security and orientation with simple images and catchwords.

      If people with purportedly easy solutions find enough followers to form a group, the members of this group can act socially responsible – but only within their own group, on a level with seemingly reduced complexity. They can realize a strong group cohesiveness; but there is the risk that they exclude all the others. In this process the group members are the good guys and all the others are "the bad

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