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nuturebelonging's Blog
Legacies: Autonomy and Belonging
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Here's a post that I found by Isabel Rimanoczy over her Legacies blog: I found an interesting paragraph in a chapter by Sharon Daloz Parks, in the book Can Ethics be Taught?. She indicates that individuality and freedom are the greatests achievements of modern culture, but we have fallen into a trap of individualism, which defends values of autonomy, personal competence, achievement and freedom to a point that now frightens rather than empowers us. "We have lost sight of the relationships between the individual and the social system, between freedom and responsibility". Yet, she observes, the individual fulfillment for most is still connected to finding a personal, meaningful place in a community. Her reflections point to the submerged value of being connected to others, establishing relationships that enrich our lives through giving and receiving. Interesting, that we strive so much for autonomy and freedom, and yet gain our deeper satisfaction when being valued, appreciated or needed by others, when we experience belonging... 
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| August 29, 2007 | 3:08 AM |
Tags:
globalhealth, students, africa, hiv/aids, cleanwater, maternalhealth, activism, healthcare, health, preventabledisease, foodsecurity, s.c.o.u.t.b.a.n.a.n.a.
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Comments
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response
Hey Brian, you've hit the nail on the help on this one: our society suffers from excessive individualism, which tends to disconnect people from the larger society more than if we had a stronger concept of community. Indeed, I believe Canada's rising rate in violent crimes and gun crimes, the rising depression rate in our young people, etc... can all be traced back to the consequences of this: when people only see them as individuals whom have little to no connection to the larger community, self-interest will dominate over the interests of the community.
In the province of NL, we're fortunate in the sense that we've been able to maintain a greater sense of community than mainland Canada. However, we too are starting to become more individualism as well, as are countries such as India, China and many others.
Indeed, everything from our difficulty in responding to our "ecological crisis" (global warming, climate change, the collapse of the fishery in NL due to unsustainable practices,etc..) to the growing gap between the rich and poor, among many others things, is greatly amplified by our lose of a sense of community.
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continuation of my previous comments
Some people in NL have wrote into editorials in "The Telegram" to state that since the advent of the Canadian Charter in 1982, talk of rights (which deal with how society should treat individuals and groups of individuals) has become to surpass responsibilities (the obligations of individuals and groups of individuals in larger society and worldwide) not only in our discussion of the above listed issues, but in the way people defend themselves in court.
Personally, I am of the opionion that passing a provincial statute to be called the 'NL Charter of Responsibilities and Obligations' would be a step towards balancing both rights and freedoms with responsibilities and obiigations. In fact, such a statute would have to affirm the principles of the Charter, but in recognizing that section 1 of the Charter says, 'the Canadian Charter guarantees the following Rights and Freedoms subject only to such reasonable limits as can be prescribly be justified in a free and democratic society', that in society, rights and freedoms (individual rights) must be balanced with our responsibilities and obligations ( our sense of community and/or collective responsibilities). In doing so, such a Statute could be amended from time to time, but it could influence the interpretation of not only Court cases, but the way that society views how we are to live our lives. If it turns out to be an effective model for doing just this in the province of NL, the idea could be turned into a Federal Statute, thereby allowing for its amendment from time to time, but still allowing for a greater recognition of our responsibilities and obligations to the larger society.
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continuation continued
Now how do I know that this could work? In 1976, the province of Quebec passed a statute known as 'The Quebec Charter of Humans Rights and Freedoms' was passed 6 years before the Canadian Charter was put in the 1982 Constitution. In fact, the Quebec Charter influenced much of what is constitutionally guaranteed today: freedom of conscience and opionion, freedom of religion,etc... And ya, from what I learned from my Law and Society 2000 course at MUN, whenever Charter rights questions are brought before the courts in Quebec, the courts have consistently considered 'The Quebec Charter' in their interpretation of 'The Canadian Charter' in that province.
But yes, things are changing. For example, the NL daily paper "The Telegram" printed a newsstory titled, 'Keeping the Faith: religious leaders to make poverty a key election issue [in the upcoming 2007 NL Provincial Election]'. And ya, despite being divided among Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity and other faiths, they have founded an Organization known as 'The Religious Social Responsibility Action Committee of NL': this is but one example of how people could come together to recognize that rights and freedoms must be balanced with responsibilities and obligations
So ya, tell me what you think of this idea and here's to hoping that the needless we see going on daily in the news will serve as a wake-up call to those who would have us believe that communal responsibilities don't exist in Canada.
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