"But, if I am only for myself, who am I?"

Social Responsibility

The topic of community values came up over hot Starbuck's beverages. Americans haughtily talk about how much they care for and love their children and elders. I'm old enough to remember political conversations about how Americans nurtured their young and venerated their seniors while the godless–Soviet communists sold their children for vodka and sent pensioners to freeze to death in Siberian camps. With historical perspective, we now know the opposite was true.

A month living in Israel last summer has given me a unfamiliar perspective on American society. After I returned to the United States, I had difficulty adjusting to the constant onslaught of advertisements on television, billboards, the Web—everywhere—24/7. We spend our time and energy creating, marketing, and buying dreck we're convinced we need to be fulfilled human beings. Is it pure greed or excessive consumerism? Both are unfulfilling.

Israelis aren't burdened with excessive discretionary personal wealth. They spend their time conversing in coffee houses, dancing, playing sports, and partying. An Israeli's car, if he or she owns one, is small and utilitarian. They dote on their children and take great pride in their grandparents, and the Israeli social system reflects these values. Families spend much time strolling in the park, eating together at the table, and attending public concerts. I'm not in love with Israel. I'm using it here as an experiential example, proof that our pathlological necessity to avoid social responsibility is an American malaise.

Americans as a group spend their time being pugnaciously acquisitive. We rationalize spending tens of thousands of dollars on a new automobile when a small economy car is all we need. And one car isn't enough. A couple rattles around a home of 2,000 or 3,000 square foot home when 1400 square feet will do. Everything must be better, bigger, newer, more expensive—except our schools, public transportation, and elder care. Our students graduate virtually illiterate. The elderly are waiting for death, millstones billeted in snake pits.

The best our government could invent was NCLB (No Child Left Behind), a mandated but unfunded law which turns out unthinking automatons; and a Medicare prescription drug coverage program so cynically Byzantine, it mocks the very people it's supposedly intended to help. Don't blame our politicians; they're no better or worse than the voters that put them in office.

What have we become? What are our traditional personal and community values and responsibilities? Americans will never reach a consensus; that's a fool's errand. The answer must come from within each of us. You can't hide; You and I know we can spare money, time, or both for the benefit of our society. Hillel said, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But, if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" The operative word is "I."