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In Reply to: Re: Responsiblility and accountability? posted by goth88 on September 05, 2002 at 19:39:31:
For starters, I do respect your opinion also. If you read what I'm saying as placing blame on people for not speaking up, that is not my intent. I do, however, think that there must be something of that sort because otherwise we would not be considering current members at least partially responsible of what the group is doing.
I understand what you are saying though and as a person who considers herself victimized (as I do also) find it difficult to see how you could have been responsible of your own victimization. I don't think it is possible and I am myself in the process of trying to work that out but neither can I deny that my participation in the doings of the cult had some bad repercussions on others.
If we discount ourselves as having some degree of responsibility, whatever that means, we are also by that very same fact saying that current members are not responsible unless they were directly involved in some form of abuse.
If this is the case, we certainly have two different opinions here because I think current members are at least indirectly responsible of the abuse in the group; the longer they have been in the group the more responsible they are.
I suspect responsibility is an internal option while accountability is an imposition from the outside. No one is asking anybody to be accountable for having been a victim but silent participation in the formulation of abuse is not precisely innocence either.
This is maybe why I have been trying to make a distinction (unsuccessfully, it seems) between responsibility and accountability. I don't have it clear myself and point to the importance of these exchanges to help understand the issues.
But my question would be if a person knew of what abuses were going on and consciously decided to stay? If you answer no, then that individual cannot be held responsible just as an employee of Enron could not be of Enron malpractices. If the answer is that they were aware of abuses, even their own, the Family is still guilty of those abuses but the individual's silence or inaction has a meaning of participation, does it not?
In either case, what's important is that you are not a victim anymore but many others still are there, which implies many perpetrators are also there. Even if they have changed or trying to pretend that abuse never happened, we know better.
Also, in my opinion and only my opinion, it is important to understand that there are different levels of responsibility and accountability and that we must also judge ourselves if we are going to judge others for the very same things we have done, or at least condoned by our silence. I am sorry if I sound like trying to impose my views on others, I am in this journey as much as everybody else and brutal analysis is my way of dealing with things. Thank you for participating.
