I'm actually really glad no one used the words "duty" or "responsibility" in their introductory statements. I don't believe in the concept of altruism. No one does anything from which they don't benefit and I'm glad that no one decided to declare him or herself a martyr for society. If being self-sacrificing makes you feel good, then you are benefiting from your "altruistic" act. One should commit his or her life to something they love, something that brings joy. Doing something out of guilt (which is how I see "duty") will not bring you joy or self-satisfaction in life and ultimately, you can't be truly committed or good at something you do with a groan. -- KateVershov - 24 Jan 2008

IMHO:
The desire to fulfill a duty is not the desire to be a self sacrificing martyr. To say the converse implies that a duty has been imposed upon you (by yourself or others) in the absence of or separate from a debt or expected benefit; that you have received nothing in exchange for the requested services defining the duty. I'm uncomfortable with throwing around the word never, but generally, this is not the case. People fulfill duties, as you say, because they have or will receive a benefit compared to the effect of not fulfilling the duty.

Some examples of what I mean: People better the community because the community provided them opportunities and they want to give back (or want to enjoy living in an improved community). People feel a duty to support their elderly mother because they received the benefit of her influence in their lives.

You sort of say this by stating that people always benefit from their actions, even if the benefit is just that they feel good, but then you seem to say that fulfilling duties is mutually exclusive from doing something you love and brings joy, and that being duty oriented implies you are motivated by guilt? Do you mean that obligations you fulfill in exchange for some benefit are mislabeled and not actually duties - that a true duty is a service provided with absolutely no benefit received? If so, can you provide an example of a duty?

So far though, I don't understand the jump to guilt, unhappiness, and groaning. However, it seems like we may just have different definitions of the term duty. I don't mean to pointlessly argue semantics .

-- MakalikaNaholowaa - 24 Jan 2008

I believe in altruism, but I'm with Kate in that I won't fault someone who won't declare it as their "duty" or "responsibility". Someone who says "I want to do good" is the functional equivalent of one who says "I feel a duty/responsibility to do good." If we'll be happier, and more driven, and more committed to do good, when we "want" to rather than when society imposes it as a "duty," then by all means say it like that. By shifting the rhetoric from society to the individual, America educates us to be self-sustaining in our do-goodery.

Risk is a question for another post.

-- AndrewGradman - 24 Jan 2008

Makalika- you are quite right. I am interpreting duty to mean something foisted upon us by society - such as "a duty to serve your country" by registering with the Army (I don't mean enlisting of one's own volition - I mean those papers all men had to sign before colleges would admit them). I am interpreting duty to mean an obligation imposed on you externally. I do not define helping your elderly mother as "a duty." You are (hopefully) not doing it because society says that you should. You are doing it because you love her and realize that you should take care of her in the same way that she once took care of you. This is not a duty. You do it because doing it preserves your own integrity as an individual and because you feel that it is the right thing to do. That action reflects your own value judgment as an individual rather than someone else's.

Note that a lot of us DID, in fact, write something akin to the idea that we believed in helping others. We didn't characterize it as a duty, though. We see it as the right thing to do. We see doing it as a reflection of the type of people we hope to be. It is a difference between following someone else's norms blindly and forging ahead on your own terms.

I will admit that largely this is an argument of semantics and there are many ways to define the words "duty" and "responsibility" and I am approaching it from just one perspective. But, I happen to be a pain in the ass about semantics and don't believe that any of us should be couching our life goals and ambitions within the terms of "duty" or "responsibility." We were right in not using those words. I likewise believe that if one of us had in fact used these word, Eben would have found another similarly irrelevant, but nice sounding term with which to chastise us . Sorry Eben. I realize you probably have a different, more positive paradigm through which to view these terms, but if so, I think you're quibbling with diction because the ideas that you see behind those words are in fact reflected in people's statements.

Andrew- why do you believe in altruism? Also, could you tell Santa I want a new computer this year? (I kid, I kid). And again - do you really feel a "responsibility" to do good? I don't. I am making a conscious value judgment about what is and isn't important to me in the world and I'm targeting those problems, which in my opinion are most pressing or of most interest to me. There is nothing objective about it. I feel no debt to society and I'm not entirely sure that anything about "society" per se confers any sort of responsibility on anyone to the extent that they feel that they must take on the profession of law (and 200k in debt)- especially not those people who grew up in underprivileged areas and received very few benefits to begin with.

To me, the words "duty" and "responsibility" are not related to the choices that individuals make for themselves. These are words related to the choices our government and other institutions want to guilt us into making. We make the choices that we do because we believe in them. We think they are right. They help us to go to sleep at night. At the heart of it, we do the things that make us feel best even if it means doing something to our detriment (like taking a public interest job) because the net effect on us is positive. We are capable of seeing a benefit in more than just material terms. See Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

-- KateVershov - 24 Jan 2008