Identity of Responsibility

******************************************************************************

The way you look at responsibility speaks a lot about the person you are
******************************************************************************

People often say that others don’t do their work so why should I? others care less about ‘things’ so why should I be any different? One feels one gets a license to ‘choose’ his way because others too go their way and if they don’t care, why should I dwell on my responsibility of doing it irrespective of the way others are responsible for their own actions. Dave and Mikhail go through a similar argument after their History Lecture. Dave hasn’t enjoyed a good image in class because of what he has ‘sowed’ during the term. His grouse is that his teacher assess performance in the oral examination by ‘face value’ and he would lose miserably due to that. Although he is himself responsible for his so called ‘face-value’, his argument is that why should my conduct during the term have any implications on an oral examination. An oral examination should be what it is: ask a question to inquire my knowledge on the subject.

Mikhail: Let’s look at a viva [oral examination] objectively as a viva and nothing else, if i answer i should get merits

Dave: But I will appear for the viva without studying. I will be present, sit down, listen to her questions and leave. She wouldn’t give me marks even if I had answered it right

Mikhail: But Dave, you are on the wrong side. You will be in the 'right' if you study and answer and inspite of that she does not give you marks. Only then he is a candidate for protest.

Dave: Mikail, you don’t understand, she has the marks in her hands. Even if I answer, she isn’t going to consider it because of my ‘facevalue’. So what’s the point in studying?

Mikhail: Dave, if you don’t study at all, you are presupposing that she is going to judge you, what if she is impressed be you answers and has second thoghts on your ‘facevalue’? What if she realized [her wrong] that she should not give marks based on facevalue? By choosing to skip preperation, you are not giving her a chance to be rise her that what she can be, even you are judging her before hand. You are a student first. Allow yourself to do your [student] duty. It is a characteristic of a crusade but not a fitting solution to not prepare [for your exam] : Because someone may give marks on face value.

Dave: 'WHAT IF' she changes her mind [ by having second thoughts on face value]. It is but a possibility.

Mikhail: Dave, we can only go with that possibility for to go any other way is to: find a reason to not do your duty expected as a student. To quash any hope that someone can be better and this hope, you can only hope if you give her a chance of the possibility of being better. Without this possibility, is to live in pessimism that everyone is bad why should I do my duty? And without keeping the possibility hope of the goodness of man open, you will take action without a 'real' cause...you have not actually suffered (as you have not prepared) until she has actually touched the pen to the paper and devalued your performance.

Your refusal to study for the apparent injustice by her ‘face-value’ assessment, is a protest. But is it a reason to protest? It is a reason to protest if only I have done my duty expected of me that is study. How can I cry if i have not sufffered any loss? I can only suffer a loss if i study and yet injustice was meted to me. I am then a candidate of protest.

Let us all stick to definitions. What is the definition of a student and the definition of a viva? We should stick to the definition of the viva. The teacher may pervert it (by judging a student based on his conduct in the classroom: face-value) but that does not mean we have to do a tit-for-tat, join the bandwagon and wash our hands clean off our responsibility. If she is really doing something wrong, let us prove it. If we refuse to do our duty because she is not sticking to the rules and doing her duty then even we too are guilty of not sticking to the rules. Does that leave any difference? We both are moulds of the same clay.

Dave and Mikhail rise from their chairs and move to the cafetaria. It may happen that Dave was not convinced or still refused to budge to Mikhail’s reasoning. He may not prefer it not necessarily because he concedes the loopholes in his ideology but because it is not convenient. It is easy to be unconvinced when you have already decided budge. To change the intention of your action or action entirely (because of persuasion in reason) takes effort and the weight of the flesh brings down the clarity of the faculty. There is a saying: IF YOU DON'T DO ACCORDING TO HOW YOU THINK, YOU WILL THINK ACCORDING TO HOW YOU DO. People will never understand if they reason according to their convenience instead of finding out what is the right thing to do.

In school, we all have copied homeworks and graded assignments. But to justify the copying, can was say that the teachers lacked spirit and quality and did not motivate us enough to do it by ourselves? And what if the teachers were state-of-the-art? Even if they teach properly, I should have the will to do it on my own. Who will give me that?