Responsibility: morning talk, September 1, 1964

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Excerpt:

It is the principle of responsibility that the strong is responsible for the weak. Strength here means a Will that is integrated on more levels, that is able to penetrate more deeply into things than the weaker Will; a certain inner quality that one has that is closely connected with understanding and the power to choose. The opposite of strength in that sense is helplessness and dependence where someone else has to make decisions for us.
We have to be very cautious in speaking of stronger and weaker people, it is quite easy to confuse self-will, selfishness, strong desires or impulses, for strength. For example, there may be a greater strength in the child than there is in the parent, and yet a responsibility is there because the child is dependent in many things.