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myrdschaemI thankfully remembered why I watched Chernobyl anyway, it was so I could watch Bread Youtuber Abigail Thorn, then still uncracked egg, and their video essay about personal responsibility vs collective responsibility. Since this vid is from 2019, instead of Covid the example used to compare is the Grenfell Tower disaster. It's a good illustration that the responsibility can't just be pinned on Dyatlov or was inherent to the Soviet system. And of course the topic of taking responsibility is a favourite among the Right Wing, going back to Thatcher/Regan. (Heads up for UK viewers' blood pressure.)
Collective responsibility certainly is relevant when talking germans and the Shoah, of course. I think the video had a good phrasing for it: there is certainly no blame on a younger generation - and that is not even talking about people immigrating from other countries, how could a young german-Turkish teen be blamed if their family only came here after the war? - but there is a "collective responsibility" for it. Looking at the way systemic racism still benefits white people in US, similar points can be made for germany, whether it's companies earning a lot from slave labor to benefits of stolen wealth getting transferred to germans and the state. It's not divorced from the present.
On the general question, I don't really do philosophy in depth, but I am a committed fence sitter so I think that responsibility is both individual and collective. Systems are often at the core of why things happen and they are the ones that need to examined and changed to future proof against disasters. But that doesn't mean individuals have no agency. In industrial accidents, there is still someone liable. Engineers and other professions know this and it's not always the workers. And for day-to-day, it's not useful to assign all consequences of actions just to outside systems. There are situations when the system is pressuring on myself or others to go along with it and that's an opportunity to put a stop to injustice.
Systemic change is important, yes, but in the meantime other things can be done. It's not unlike therapy where of course the dismantling of oppressive systems is way beyond the scope of it. Instead therapy usually focuses on what individual actions can be taken to empower the patient - maybe to push for systemic change themselves after.
After watching that essay, I found another on Chernobyl and philosophy, this time focusing on the concept of "risk societies"(= Risikogesellschaft) as a way to conceptualise the modern world. The focus here is that modern risks are often distributed widely and can't be understood without outside sensors and knowledge. As a result in modern society, there is a need to rely on experts to analyse and interpret risks. I don't think I agreed with everything outlined in the video, but it seemed overall solid and I might look into the work of Ulrich Beck further.
Collective responsibility certainly is relevant when talking germans and the Shoah, of course. I think the video had a good phrasing for it: there is certainly no blame on a younger generation - and that is not even talking about people immigrating from other countries, how could a young german-Turkish teen be blamed if their family only came here after the war? - but there is a "collective responsibility" for it. Looking at the way systemic racism still benefits white people in US, similar points can be made for germany, whether it's companies earning a lot from slave labor to benefits of stolen wealth getting transferred to germans and the state. It's not divorced from the present.
On the general question, I don't really do philosophy in depth, but I am a committed fence sitter so I think that responsibility is both individual and collective. Systems are often at the core of why things happen and they are the ones that need to examined and changed to future proof against disasters. But that doesn't mean individuals have no agency. In industrial accidents, there is still someone liable. Engineers and other professions know this and it's not always the workers. And for day-to-day, it's not useful to assign all consequences of actions just to outside systems. There are situations when the system is pressuring on myself or others to go along with it and that's an opportunity to put a stop to injustice.
Systemic change is important, yes, but in the meantime other things can be done. It's not unlike therapy where of course the dismantling of oppressive systems is way beyond the scope of it. Instead therapy usually focuses on what individual actions can be taken to empower the patient - maybe to push for systemic change themselves after.
After watching that essay, I found another on Chernobyl and philosophy, this time focusing on the concept of "risk societies"(= Risikogesellschaft) as a way to conceptualise the modern world. The focus here is that modern risks are often distributed widely and can't be understood without outside sensors and knowledge. As a result in modern society, there is a need to rely on experts to analyse and interpret risks. I don't think I agreed with everything outlined in the video, but it seemed overall solid and I might look into the work of Ulrich Beck further.
