Blindspot!
From Issue: 638 [Read full issue]
Accountability
Accountability is the willingness to acknowledge that we have participated in creating, through commission or omission, the conditions that we wish to see changed. Without this capacity to see ourselves as cause, our efforts become either coercive or wishfully dependent on the transformation of others.
Community will be created the moment we decide to act as creators of what it can become. This is the stance of ownership, which is available to us every moment on every issue, even world peace, the overdependence on fossil fuel consumption, and the fact that our teenagers are slightly self-centred.
This requires us to believe in the possibility that this organization, this neighbourhood, this community is mine or ours to create. This will occur when we are willing to answer the essential question, "How have I contributed to creating the current reality?" Confusion, blame, and waiting for someone else to change are defences against ownership and personal power. This core question, when answered, is central to how the community is transformed.
Compiled From:
"Community: The Structure of Belonging" - Peter Block, p. 127