Personal and Social Responsibility
Personal responsibility mainly explains the willingness of an individual to accept the standards that a given society has set to govern the behaviours of individuals. Every individual, therefore, makes personal efforts to live as per the standards set. It creates the ethical guidelines through which individuals take an account for fulfilling their duties civic duties. With that regard, the actions undertaken by an individual must, therefore, be of benefit to the whole society. Our social life, therefore, has to maintain a balance between social welfare, economic growth and the environment. Also, personal responsibility implies that when an individual fails to meet the standards of society, they don’t look for other factors apart from themselves to blame (Joseph, 2003). Personal responsibility in society often comes into play when handling the matters that mainly entails individual desires.
The ethical values which caused me to intervene in this situation would be my caring heart for people, and my sense of responsibility to all people and also my wanting a clear understanding of whether the Military officer was fair in his dealings with the people in the village before killing three people. If the police suspected that one of the three individuals had killed his colleague, he ought to have taken legal action but not shooting three individuals. The laws that exist in society are meant to reflect the ethicality and morality in an appropriate situation. In this circumstance, the law was to set the standard way that the police could have dealt with the killing of his colleague. According to the moral law in every society, the killing of another individual is always regarded as a crime. The police also out to have considered the fact that even if the murderer was amongst the three individuals, he had selected, the other two were still innocent, and therefore, there were no any moral standards upon which he would kill the two.
My responsibility was to intervene and possibly lend some reasoning to the situation by asking questions and perhaps offering a different way of handling the issue. I must ensure that the lives of the three individuals were respected. However, thy are also the same individuals who tend to take responsibility for the killing of a fellow society member. However, this was a case of fair judgement to protect the interest of every individual without offending anyone. I had the moral responsibility to ensure that the individuals were fairly treated. The police also were violating the moral standards that require him to protect the life of everyone. I made the assumption that I had a substantial level of responsibility to protect the lives of the three individuals (Rosselle, 2019).
I was taught that we are innocent until proven guilty, and without proof, it is only speculation. Guilt mainly entails the feelings that an individual develops after doing something wrong. The sense of guilt in an individual work in relation to the moral standards within society. Guilt can sometimes be productive as it initiates the process of change in an individual as an apology or even the decision to do things differently in the future. In some situations, the feeling of guilt comes when an individual has to make choices between moral action and immoral action. The sense of innocence, on the other hand, comes when there is no feeling of guilt. It is essential when making a judgement on a criminal case.
The military officer’s values had taken flight, and he was no longer operating from the military policy but his policy. He was taking the law into his own hands. Every individual regardless of the position in the society has a responsibility in the society to protect the lives of others. The military officer is not only under the control of the moral law of the society but also the standards that have been legally set to govern the conducts of the military officer. However, a military officer has the legal authority to kill an individual who kills his or her colleague, the military officer had no evidence that one of the individuals had killed his partner. By shooting the three individuals, it was likely that he was going to kill either three or two innocent individuals. This violates the responsibility that society expects him to undertake.
I would have needed to know whether they recovered the murder weapon. I would have also wanted to know if there was a proper investigation conducted in order to fully weigh in. If none of these had been achieved, I would advise the police officers to conduct an investigation to understand the matter before taking action. I will also consider the various factors that influence the judgement of individual conducts. Such factors outline the responsibilities that every individual has within society. In this case, religious influences can also be put into play. The religious standards guide the actions that an individual takes when handling different situations. The religious standards provide the judgement on matters based on the holy scriptures. In this case, the standards of any religion do not accept the killing, particularly, the killing of innocent individuals. Individual beliefs are also put into play in the circumstances of justice.
My solution would be to respect the military officer’s decision since I am not familiar with the laws of the land, nor am I versed on the rules/policies of the military. It would fulfil my need to know that I honoured my responsibility to help others in need. I will also try to understand the beliefs of the police officers and those of the three individuals. This would also satisfy my need to respect others. A fair judgement is likely to be arrived at by making reference to the legal standards that are set by the countries where every individual come from. Since my culture and religion are against the killing of any individual, I will spare the life of the military officers but give advice based on what the military officer believes in (Cerny, 2016).
I chose to present the military officer with different solutions for resolving the problem, which would include fewer deaths occurring. I will take into consideration the responsibility that every individual has to protect the lives of the others. I will refer the military officer to consider operating within the legal framework that directs his conduct. The three civilians are harmless as they have surrendered to the police. Therefore, the military officer does not have any ground for shooting them. Generally, my judgement will base on the legal, cultural and religious beliefs of the parties involved.
References
Cerny, P. G. (2016). In the shadow of ordoliberalism: The paradox of neoliberalism in the 21st century. European Review of International Studies, 3(1), 78-91.
Junior, J. S. N. (2003). Understanding international conflicts: an introduction to theory and history. Longman.
Roselle, L., Spray, S., & Shelton, J. T. (2019). Research and writing in international relations. Routledge.
Viterale, F. D. C. (2018). University as a global actor in the international system of the 21st Century. Tuning Journal for Higher Education, 6(1), 169-198.