I love the benefits of being in a group or community, but also don't like some of the downsides.
First a little background of experiences of my experiences of being in or working in groups.
I was very involved in my kids high school club sport. It was crew and it took a lot of fundraising and parental involvement to make it work. Around 50 or so kids and an annual budget of about $80,000 per year thru fundraising and dues. I was on two boards and also took additional responsibilities things that needed to be done, maintenance on equipment and weekly duties that needed to be done. Of about the 50 or so kids, only about 10 or so of their parent or parents were involved in running the program. I took a lot of my time but was truly a life altering maturing process for me. It was an opportunity for me to be in leadership positions and make decisions and express my belief or opinion. I am in a van pool and I am currently the one responsible for maintain it and handling any problems that my arise with riders in it. I believe these experiences have changed me for the better and have given me more leadership skills. I
think big or small, rich or poor, groups are going to have similar problems just on a different scale.
So here is my take on the
bucket problem and what it means to be noble.
First, "the bucket problem" is a lack of "I don't own it" so I don't care.
People that "own it" are usually obvious, they are the ones the are more disciplined, have more, are more organized and things seem to their way more often. They are the ones that are leaders, supervisors, don't need supervision to get things down, self-motivated.
Second, the "ones" that own it, own it even when they don't. They are the ones with peripheral vision, ones that can see many things around them and act with responsibility.
Third, I think there is are less of "the ones", the good ones I mean, than there used to be. Schools don't want to teach independent thought. Being a leader is hard but rewarding. But, who seems to be are leaders for most part? Seems like there are a bunch of narcissistic assholes. They are backed those with power and money and usually squash those with noble ideals.
This "I don't own it" mentality is aggravated by many things.
Lack of good instinctive parenting, lack of discipline and responsibility given to children from an early age. Too many kids don't value hard works, hard skills, that "work" is for someone else, how about the immigrants, they need that
job right?
Lack of social stigma for being lazy or a bum. The lazy ones just seem to another face in the crowd, the crowd that doesn't really care. The crowd that is more than willing to suck from the government tit.
The use of machinery and mechanization has made it possible for us to be a lot less physically active than we used to be. We are soft and out of shape. We can be that slug on the couch cause we now use fossil fuels and machines that do the hard part for us.
So how can the bucket problem be less of problem? First, make that task something that is owned. Make that task a one week task and know the consequences if the task isn't completed as required before the task is given. Second, reward tasks that are well done. This is just basic humane nature. Third, punish those how do tasks poorly. There does not seem to be the pride in good job well done anymore, cause most people don't seem to care.
The Pilgrims almost died cause the hardest ones of the group didn't feel rewarded for there efforts, how time doesn't seem to change does it?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/the_tale_of_the_pilgrims_why_i.html