Personal responsibility, and who we choose to associate with.
This Thread, I'm going to be talking about personal responsibility, because it's a quality that most people seem to lack nowadays. We live in a society today where are most people one of them always blame everyone else for their problems, except for themselves.
What is that behavior getting us? what good is it doing to blame other people for our problems, as a society, or as individuals?
What we are as people, depends on what we think about, what we fill our minds with. Proverbs 23:7 states: "So as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Or in the words of Doctor Wayne W. Dyer: "You become what you think about."
So what do you think about? What is the main thing you focus on as a person? Because what you put your mind to, that's who you're gonna be. For example, if you fill your mind with violent or depraved entertainment, it's gonna affect your behavior, and you're gonna start becoming like what you see.
I once had an ordained minister tell me once: "What you choose to watch on TV, might not be an indication of the person you will become, but instead it might be an indication of the person you already are."
Or if you hang around with people who lie, steal, and cheat, you're going to become like them. Why do you think criminals who were put in prison, are often times worse when they get released, than they were before they went in? it all has to do with the environment that they are in, and who they're associating with.
there's an old saying in Alcoholics Anonymous: "If you hang around a barbershop long enough, you're going to get a haircut."
Whether you like it or not, or want to admit to it or not, we ARE products of our environment. And that is an irrefutable truth, no matter how much you try to argue, or deny it, it is something that will not change. Truth doesn't change, and it never will!
So if you want to have a good life, if you want to be successful, if you want to have good relationships with other people, then you need to hang around with like-minded people.
It's called taking responsibility for the choices you make, including what you choose to view for entertainment, and whom you choose to associate with.
Blaming other people for your problems, or for the poor choices that you make, is not going to change anything. as a living and breathing human being, you are solely responsible for the choices that you make.
Until you change how you think, and be mindful of whom you associate with, only then will you start having a successful life.
Comments
No, not really. It does if you're an impressionable person, which is why you shouldn't let children watch such violent entertainment, but if you just watch violent TV shows or play violent video games, that doesn't mean you're going to become violent. Quite the opposite actually for some people, including myself. I play violent games to get anger out, which funny enough works, I hardly get angry as it's focused towards things that aren't real and that I know aren't real.
Your minister is wrong. If you understand something is fiction, then you aren't affected by it. If you don't then it becomes you, and it rules your life.
Unlike your previous comments, this one is true. Be careful who you associate with, because if you're hanging around criminals, they'll pull you into crime.
After reading this, I found it ironic. You claimed we need more personal responsibility but blamed entertainment for creating people's attitudes.
Like it or not, we are influenced by what we see and here. And we CHOOSE what we view for entertainment.
I watch the Walking Dead but I don't feel influenced to bite some guys throat out nor find it entertaining.
No, we aren't. If we're not insane or impressionable then we're not influenced.
I watch The Walking Dead, I'm not going to go shoot some people. I used to watch that Gotham show, I'm not about to go fight crime in the streets. I remember I used to watch Dexter, I'm not about to become a serial killer. I play Battlefield, I'm not about to go march off to war. I play Assassin's Creed, I'm not about to go try parkour unless I know how to do it.
We are not influenced by entertainment unless you're already crazy or impressionable to have those thoughts. So much for personality responsibility, you're not saying look at yourself and accept what you do is done by you, you're saying blame TV. I'm not about to watch beauty pageants to become more beautiful or comedy to become funnier. It doesn't work like that, so don't act like it.
Watching or playing violent entertainment does not make you violent. Loosely linked to quite the opposite actually. As Oscar Wilde said:
There will always be those that wish to rape, kill, torture, and all manner of other terrible things. Alleviate those drives by playing pretend.
As for "taking responsibility" in regards to the people you hang around? I think there is definitely some important truth to take from it, but it's also not as simple as not hanging out with the wrong people. Autonomy is note worthy, but it doesn't exist independent of influence.