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Again and again one hears from responsible citizens. In the 1980s there was even a political party that called itself that. However, since the late 1970s I have referred to a more philosophical view of the term, linking maturity with self-determination and personal responsibility. The originator of this thought will probably Immanuel Kant have been when he addressed the question of what enlightenment actually is?
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-inflicted immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's mind without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-inflicted if its cause is not lack of understanding but lack of determination and courage to use it without the guidance of another. saper aude! have courage to use your own understanding! So that's the motto of the Enlightenment. ... Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so many people ... still like to remain underage for the rest of their lives."
Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment? (1784)
But what makes a responsible citizen anyway? I try to explain it by reducing this question to three terms, namely responsibility, education and volunteering, and explaining them briefly and strikingly.
Responsibility
Responsibility is to do his military service, alternative service or at least a social year for our society.
Responsibility is not to flee to West Berlin to avoid conscription or to have a false health certificate issued. Nor simply giving up the social year because it is voluntary.
Responsibility is to complete the best possible education and thus contribute to our economy and society prospering and our state receiving the necessary tax money.
Responsibility does not mean remaining below one's own capacities and thus depriving society of potential and necessary taxes or even being a burden on society.
Education
Education is a civic duty. This means that lifelong learning is not only a matter of course, but a necessity in order to advance individual citizens and society.
Education makes us all better people and has an immediate effect on all areas of human coexistence.
Lifelong learning also guarantees that necessary social progress is not delayed or left to the next generation.
Those who do without education and constant learning not only harm themselves, but especially society and the environment. The destruction of our nature is a result of denial of education.
volunteering
Man is a Zoon Politician and lives out this nature in voluntary work. Voluntary work is not intended to enable individual citizens to secure their own livelihood as cheaply as possible.
Honorary posts determine a large part of the life of every responsible citizen. He accompanies this from an early age, later also in addition to work and family up to retirement age, whereby each individual has to be very careful that he/she accompanies honorary posts primarily for others and not as an end in itself and later for pure self-occupation against their own boredom will.
Volunteering brings with it a lot of responsibility, is an essential part of any functioning society and harms everyone and everyone if misused.
Conclusion
I believe that I have described the responsible citizen very well, because ultimately it is not a question of wanting to, but solely of being able and doing.
In our society in particular, there are very, very many responsible citizens who are still keeping them alive. Everyone else is just bullshit.
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight."
Theodore Roosevelt, Speech in New York (November 11, 1902)
