Consequences Of Being Reckless

There are three types of people in terms of work and responsibility. Some human beings are insincere about their work. Some of them are over-sincere and feel always anxious about their assignments. In between there are many people who like to work moderately with a complacent attitude. The complacent people do not become instrumental in social damage but they cannot make progress in life. Over-sincere people may not be satisfied with their tasks because they are too anxious, which may prove insensible most often. The insincere people are the most dangerous because they harm themselves as well as the whole society. This is more applicable to the people who are assigned the public responsibility. If the people with public responsibility are insincere, they are reckless in their activities.

Public responsibility

Ours is a different time when the functions of the government have changed over the years. Previously, the governments were expected to function much for the people – many tasks ranging from maintaining peace and order to providing facilities at the home door. In welfare states, governments are still engaged in launching activities for social welfare. In capitalistic societies, governments are becoming more like business agencies that want to draw more money from taxation and other means. In the changing context, however, governments around the world are entitled to do mainly two functions – maintaining law and order and levying taxes on wage earners and businesspersons. 

Since government employees are civil servants who are assigned the responsibility of working in the best interest of the people, they must be highly responsible persons. Not only government employees, but anybody with public responsibility, such as teachers and doctors must be accountable to the public.  If a teacher is insincere, for instance, they may not teach well or not teach at all. The students then will be deprived of the good education that their parents desperately expect in their children. Likewise, if a doctor is insincere, a patient may lose their life. 

But this is not only applicable to the public person. In an advanced economy, even a private entrepreneur may have a great impact on society. Some obvious instances are the production of goods, especially agricultural products. If an industry, despite launching solely private entrepreneurship, produces poisonous foodstuff, then that product is detrimental to public health. Sometimes, the production of some commodities may cause a deficit for the manufacturer. If a textile industrialist produces unsaleable goods such as clothes with bad design and color, they may not attract the consumer’s attention. In this respect, any act that is conducted by somebody at this time is subject to public scrutiny. So, everybody must be sincere if they want to survive and prosper in today’s sophisticated society. 

Societies of all advanced cultures are very complex today. Interdependence has grown so much that everything is dependent on everything else. Likewise, every person has to rely on every other person. Just as plants and animals live in symbiotic relationships, so do individual human beings and the societies they live in. No matter how hard we try to live separately, we ultimately resort to the company of our fellow beings. In a sense, all human beings today are living in micro-symbiotic relationships. In such a context, everybody must be responsible, otherwise, there will be a disaster in society.

Unfortunately, however, the governments of the powerful countries which can have a greater impact on the rest of world, are not what they are expected to be. The developed countries emit more carbon monoxide which causes air pollution. The advancement in science and technology has more sophisticated home gadgets being produced. The industrial growth has caused global warming that has changed the face of the entire earth. Consequently, the developing nations have suffered. 

Some argue that the powerful developed countries have absolutely benefitted from the powerless developing countries. But this is not true. Even the developed countries are insincere about the consequences of their actions. If the whole earth is affected, even the developed countries will suffer because the powerless as well as the powerful countries share the same earth. 

The same applies to the individuals also. As the oriental saying goes, a stupid person cuts the trunk of a tree while sitting on the upper branches without knowing what will happen when the tree trunk falls to the ground. Even an innocent child can easily understand what it means to be a stupid person like Kalidas, who later became a famous Sanskrit poet in Sanskrit, was once such a stupid person who did an action that was sure to harm himself.

Reckless actions

The consequences of being reckless are unpleasant. What happens to the passengers if a driver is reckless? What are the consequences of the actions of a druggist who enjoys having drugs that gratify the senses for an instant but gradually decay the whole body? A murderer kills the person whom he hates to take revenge but does not think of the imminent danger of life imprisonment. A rapist commits a crime out of uncontrolled sexual desire without thinking of the possible consequence. These are some of the most conspicuous instances of being reckless. There can be many more such actions that harm the doers themselves. The multimillion-dollar question is why do some people take the risk of being reckless? Psychologists say reckless people have a perverted psychology while sociologists might argue that society makes them as they are. There might be an answer to this question but an inconclusive one. 

It may be interesting to conclude this article by referring to a tale told by Shakespeare (1623) in his play Macbeth. Goaded by Lady Macbeth believing in the words of witches that Macbeth will become future the King of Scotland and will not be killed by a man born of a woman, the General kills his own kinsman, King Duncan, for which he loses everything consequently because he does the most sacrilegious act being reckless. 

  (The author is the chairman of Molung Foundation. bhupadhamala@gmail.com)