By Rania Dawud

Social responsibility is the responsibility that each one of us has towards each other and the community we are a part of. This ethical framework goes hand-in-hand with the beliefs of the collectivistic Middle Eastern culture, in that it is more concerned with the entire group’s needs and goals over the needs of each individual.  

However, over time, with urbanization and our cities growing bigger and more crowded, we tend to fall back into our own tiny groups. Now our priorities are to ourselves and the people closest to us. The troubles and concerns of other people are no longer our business nor are they our responsibility. 

We’ve become more individualistic, focused on our own wants and goals without always taking into consideration the “group” or society. 

It’s good to have priorities and to recognize our own worth but there seems to be a lack of balance between collectivism and individualism in our society (and most societies for that matter). People are both nosy and indifferent, both prying and careless, which puts them off working together.   

It’s a weird and delicate balancing act that our society hasn’t gotten the hang of yet. It’s almost like we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves with our individualism but are not yet ready to let go of our collectivistic instinct, creating a messy atmosphere of anxiety. 

For example, some people might not wear a mask in public since they are not worried about the Coronavirus or have confidence that it won’t affect them. However, wearing a mask is not to benefit the individual, it’s to benefit the group. 

So even if they might be right and the virus won’t have a negative effect on them, it might have a more severe impact on their colleague. In this case, the opinions or strengths of the individual are irrelevant, this is a collective struggle that asks for the cooperation and responsibility of the collective. 

This kind of misguided mentality of prizing one’s own opinions above everyone else’s might be to boost a sense of individuality and independence but, unfortunately, it gets misconstrued to justify ignorance and being inconsiderate.

We must keep remembering that our feelings are valid until they are hurting and interfering with the wellbeing of others; that’s the red line we can’t cross for the sake of our own convenience. 

There are both pros and cons to each individualism and collectivism but we have to be smarter with how we operate within these structures. We need to understand the limitations of both and find ways to be kinder without doing each other a disservice.