Every person is responsible for something. And every person can be judged for his every act. But not everyone will account for it. Unfortunately, in our times, many people can’t be judged, according to the legislation, because they have a sense of untouchability. It’s a pity, that we could observe such kind of process from ancient times till nowadays.
A vivid example from the literature was provided by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his novel named “The Little Prince”. The main character of this story knows, what exactly responsibility is. He understands that if he neglects his responsibility, there will be consequences which could lead to the total lost of everything. The Little Prince is the King of his own planet. Therefore, he is responsible for his property. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said: “We are responsible for those who tamed”.
There are more than two hundred countries, three thousand nations and ethnos on our planet. All of them are united by the national responsibility,for example: national interests, safety and property. The national responsibility is the widest realm of responsibility. Every citizen has his personal responsibility that concerns his own life. But national responsibility is spread to every person and consolidate them in the united circle of interests.
There was a timeless rule – if you betray your country, you will get the death sentence. The national guilt is not only the indignity of the national responsibility. The disrespect for your own country has always been the national guilt.
The common citizens bear the national guilt when the authority is guilty. Usually people are blamed for authority faults. Moral values are guarantee of the sense of responsibility. The classic example is the dictatorship of The Soviet Union, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. All these regimes had national ideas that provided a sense of public debt that led to a certain impact (principles of racism, Pangermanism, imposing the ideas).
They wanted everyone to live according to their canons. Most of the people now feel guilty for actions of their ancestors. But we can’t say that those criminals didn’t bear the blame for their own responsibility. Oscar Schindler is the example of such kind of people. This man was a member of the Nazi party in Germany as well as a businessman. During the Second World War, he founded his business by hiring jews (they were cheap labor in those days). Oscar is a prime example of a man who has evolved in his own views.
At first he considered it as an opportunity of making money. Butover time, he realized that workers became his family, and that he had been a buttress for them. At the end of the war he had to change the location of the factory. As we know at the end of the war, the Germans killed the Jewish people by means of gas chambers. The Schindler’s Jews were not an exception. They were sent to Auschwitz.
Through his funds Schindler obtained permission. Then he bought them and gave jews work on an another plant that was worked in loss. With his forces, Schindler saved nearly 1,200 Jews. The rest of his life he had to live in poverty.
Of course, there is a number of such examples in the history, but this one is the most vivid. But we should not forget about the appalling examples of the activity of tyrants and dictators who conquest territory where ordinary people are forced into foreign yoke. The same are the concentration camps and the public humiliation of one nation over another. But as they say, sooner or later justice will prevail.
You may ask, what about ordinary people? Most of these people that have been through all this and their predecessors feel guilty for their ancestorstill now. This is a positive thing that people are aware of their mistakes. All this is embedded in our subconscious. Our history teaches us not to repeat such rash actions anymore and approach each issue rationally.
But it does not mean that we live now in the world where there is a sense of justice. Nothing has rather changed. Many people who came thought that, understand results of two world wars, people would stop barge in the internal affairs of other countries. But if we take closer look at the war in Vietnam, which the USA had started, we would see that they couldn’t calm down because someone doesn’t want to support their vision of the world. Thus, they unleashed a war that had been beneficial to them.
But the most terrible thing is that many people didn’t feel a national guilt in relation to the Vietnamese people. But over time, a move that was against the war expanded. More and more people began to feel exactly that same guilt. This is due to the high cultural development of the citizens of this country.
In conclusion, we can say that we live not in the best world. Each nation must remember not only their victories but also their defeats, not only their righteous people, but their sinners too.
