Responsibility and Accountability

In order for this tribe, or cluster of people unified under a universal currency and an ever-evolving moral theory, to exist peacefully and prosperously we need to be accountable for that which we are responsible. This moral-umbrella that we're sharing is of course not a static thing, rather a continually accreting and morphing thing. With new principles slowly weaving in and antiquated principles being slowly relinquished. 

If we're all going to implicitly agree to partake in the offerings of this culture and society, we should all adhere to similar principles and if not, at least adhere to non-aggression. Always, in the proceedings of evolving this thing, ideas trump violence. Indeed, ideas can prevent violence, this requires the agreement of non-violence of course. It may not be a contract but certainly we individually agree to behave within parameters that harm no one, so we can all function in harmony and prosperity. This is what civilization is, or at least should be.

When someone commits an injurious or debilitating action against another, what do we do? Of course, under our system of justice - punishing those that harm or debilitate - we respond. The response to evil, or wrongdoings or harm or debilitating actions, is necessary. We cannot avoid it. This doesn't grant that it's an inevitability of human-behaviour, but in the occurrence of it there must be a response. With this population-density combined with the dissociative nature of our tribes, evil,  debilitating, harmful wrongdoings are evidently present. 

So how do we respond?

 I wouldn't suggest that prevention is the one and only saviour, capable of entirely expunging evil from civilization, but it's an effective agent. Through early teachings in reason, logic and philosophy, by instilling dialogue as a means of resolution, I would assert that we would experience a lower frequency of inappropriately settled disputes, thereby reducing violence. Twofold, reason encourages compassion, reason permits rational resolutions of things. For this to occur we would necessarily need every citizen, or the overriding majority, to agree under some means of unification. 

 We all enjoy harmonious interaction with the members that form our closes bonds. A social mammal relishes in social environments. Not necessarily all social environments, but certain ones. That one friend you reciprocate with well, your group of friends, etc. It assures us we aren't alone, that we're all traveling through this nebulous journey together, figuring it out as we proceed through. That we will support each other and relinquish prejudice and censorious behaviour and coalesce. These qualities are indisputably beneficial, my own and your own experience confirm this. 

Earlier I mentioned that due to the density and dissociative nature of our tribes we experience evil. What does that mean? How could it be corrected rather than combatted?

 It's evident, through anthropological studies, that humans are tribal animals that rely on cohesion and alliances, that we thrive in tribes. In the tribe, each member must be responsible and accountable. If you are responsible for building the huts and they collapse on me,  you're accountable. If you're responsible for cultivating the food and come winter we suffer a famine, you're accountable. There's an intricate web of responsibility and accountability, with each member relying on each other. 

 What's essential for the tribe is that each member sustain a relationship with each other, in order to track their behaviour and ensure they're working for the benefit of the tribe. When a member commits a crime against the tribe, they're accountable to the whole tribe,  because civilization doesn't progress through delinquency. 

In order to ameliorate the present state of our tribes, I would argue we need to erect more incentives for communities to function like communities. This would include things like: more localized systems of government that focus on smaller constituencies, local food production, smaller schools with fewer students, and more accountability. As our population continues to increase I think it's vital that we focus on smaller communities because as it currently stands, government is elected by the majority of the minority. Constituencies are becoming too large to accurately account for everyone.