"Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part"

I have been pondering lately what it means to have true social responsibility. What am I as a citizen of this world responsible for? What do I owe my fellow man? What do I owe the "system" that currently owns us?

I just finished reading the book starship troopers. Its really interesting in comparison to the Hollywood movie. The book is so much more centered around the idea that our current political system is flawed. One thing that I really jive with is that they place a value on citizenship. Some days I feel that modern humans have come to the point of feeling that everything is a right, that it should be given to them. I think this is wrong. I think that you must earn something to appreciate it. I think that citizenship should be earned by those who put into the system. Give something of your life/time to help the whole community. A citizen should care about the greater good, should care about making the whole system better by their actions.

Yes, I am speaking in generalities, I know dear friends who had their undergrad paid for, and they truly seem to appreciate it.
My undergrad cost me quite a bit, I spent 4 years working for my country, I paid for my undergrad in sweat and tears of hard work. I wrote the check to the school every month, I knew how much each hour of lecture cost me.

Gifts are valued less than something that is earned. If something costs you years of your life to accomplish, you remember that, you value that.

Value is an interesting thing, many things have a value because we place an artificial value on that thing. A diamond is valuable right? But that value is fake, the amount of diamonds that are in the world is artificially controlled by a group of bankers that sit in a bank and decide how much of the diamond overstock to release into the market in order to maintain an appropriate value on the diamonds, but the individual diamond that you may buy in the jewelry store has only a real value a fraction of what you would pay for it, but we pay because we feel that its valuable.

Value is arbitrary, but if something costs you a great deal to earn it, even if its true value is small, you treasure it greatly. That diamond is no less valuable because its true value is small, what you think is of the hours of work that you had to accomplish before it could be attained.

The right to be a citizen of the world should cost you something. You should value it, not throw it into the corner and step on it.

What have you done to better the human race? What will you do?

M@