Individual responsibility must be absolute

old building in Guangzhou

Today I would like to quote James Allen in “As a Man Thinketh”:

“In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own and not another man's. They are brought about by himself and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own, and not another man's……..

It has been usual for men to think and to say, "Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor!" But there is amongst an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgment and to say, "One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves."

The truth is that oppressor and slaves are cooperators in ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality, afflicting themselves.”

Beware of politicians that are extremely popular. All left wing dictators were extremely popular (Mao, Stalin. Castro just to name a few) at some point of their political career.