My friend Susan Price proposes that personal responsibility is evolving. She says:

Is our culture evolving into one where each person will have more choice and take more (appropriate) responsibility? Where are we on the curve, if so – and what can we do to further it?

I obviously assume it's happening, and I think it's a good thing.

Susan, I want a little more meat on your question-bone. For instance, what do you mean by "(appropriate) responsibility"? Is that loaded or what? What would be inappropriate responsibility? A mass-murderer owning up to his collaborator that he missed a few?

I'll grant you this: People on most of the planet have far more choices than ever before. There are many more of us, living far longer lives, with vastly more opportunities for self-expression than ever. That part seems to be true and ever propgressing at a rapid pace. But are people perceiving that they have more real choice and are we enjoying that perception? Not most of us. Most people I encounter feel at least as trapped in their life as they feel at choice.

So that brings me to ask you Susan: Explain what you mean by "take more appropriate responsibility?" 

Here is what Responsibility Redefined has taught me about that. Taking more responsibility ("appropriate" is redundant) means having what you want and wanting what you have. It means being free. It means recognizing your choices—an internal freedom owned through any situation, even a bleak one. It means acknowledging your power to choose, to create, and to attract your life whether you like it or not.

So I'm not sure if we are more responsible or not. What I know is that we can be if we want to be. If you'd like to develop a greater sense of responsibility yourself, or in your family or team, I do think I know how to help you do that. And if enough of us do that, then maybe we can someday say that people are more responsible today than they were yesterday.