How much freedom do you think we have? And how much responsibility goes with such freedom?

I remember being told very early in the piece that with privilege comes responsibility, that one does not exist without the other - or should not, if one was a decent human being. I think the same can be said for freedom, since freedom is a privilege clearly not shared by all in this world. But what exactly is this responsibility that we have? To what extent must it be for others, and how much for ourselves?

The editors of the two NZ papers which printed the Muhammad cartoons yesterday apologized in a meeting with Muslim leaders and convened by the Race Relations Commissioner. They apologized for the offense caused, but did not resile from the decision to publish. In return, the Muslim leaders recognized freedom-of-the-press issues. The president of the (NZ) Federation of Islamic Associations felt it had been a successful outcome.

But what exactly is responsibility when it comes to personal reactions? If you do something that I find to be offensive, and someone else did not find to be offensive, then does that mean you did two different things? No, of course you didn’t. You did one thing, but there were two reactions. In fact, there can be as many reactions as there are people to react. So who is responsible for the reactions that occur - you, or the people reacting?

Two women are baking cakes in their kitchens, both of them using identical recipes. Coincidentally, both of them leave out the raising agent and the resultant cakes turn out to be a bit of a mess. One of the women, on taking her cake out of the oven, gapes in horror and then worries and starts the negative “self talk” that drags herself down into hopeless despair and self-loathing. Yes, there are many people around whose self esteem rest entirely on their achievements and can brook no failure without it reflecting in a somewhat fragile self image. But the other woman, on seeing her cake, gives a sigh of frustration but matter-of-factly sets about planning how to recover without any harm done. She does not catastrophize nor relate this to her own self esteem. Two quite different reactions to the identical situation, and each the responsibility of the owner of the reaction.

Two men have insults thrown at them, but in a language that they do not understand and so they have no idea what was said. They look at each other and pull one of those faces that says “Did you get that? Neither did I.” They did not feel insulted - not because no insults were thrown at them, but because they did not comprehend. Again they have the same insults thrown at them, this time in their own language which they do understand. The words are heard and a huge network of neurons fire within their brains, both cognitive and affective associations being made. One simply laughs and walks away. The other raises his fists and fights back. Who is responsible for each of their quite different reactions?

Now if I did something that you find to be offensive, I can certainly feel sorry that you have reacted that way, and I am likely to even say that - “I am sorry!” or “I am sorry that you are offended by what I did.” It is quite possible that I might even, out of compassion, say “I am sorry that I offended you” since I know it is not a pleasant experience to feel offended. But that is not to say that I should be blaming myself for your offence taken because, in fact, it was you and not me who is responsible for your own reaction. Would I do it again, knowing that you will be offended? Well… it would very much depend on what exactly it was that I did, and how important in the larger scheme of things it was that I did. I may not wish to offend you, but it may be that there are even more important things to consider. And this is where responsibility comes into the equation. The responsibility to consider all things and to make the decision that I honestly believe to be best.

So our two newspaper editors apologized for the offense caused, and the Muslim leaders recognized the freedom-of-the-press issues. I’m not exactly sure what that means. I would like to think that they took responsibility for their own reactions, but I have not been told that they did. If we are all to enjoy certain freedoms, which in this world are priveleges that all do not have, then we have a matter of responsibility to consider. Is it that we must be responsible for the reactions of others, and if so, to what degree are we responsible?

I think I have been hearing many say that we are indeed responsible for the reaction of others - that the Press is therefore irresponsible to publish information that will have negative social outcomes.

But just a moment… what about those who are doing the reacting? What about their own responsibilty for the attitudes and beliefs that they hold, and to curb their reactions in the interests of preventing negative social outcomes. Is responsibility to be abrogated for them? No, this is a both ways affair. And what about the responsibility we have to protect our freedoms, and to exert them despite the fact that not all will react in the same way? Oh-oh, there is much to consider in this whole big issue, and just right now when I observe the events on the world stage, it is still looking awfully one-sided to me.