I don't know if this helps, but let me add one little idea to this
discussion. I like to think of responsibility by breaking the word up and
changing it a bit: Response Ability. By doing this, we can see that
responsibility has to do with one's ability to respond to and deal with
the world. Your ability to respond is a manifestation of your assumptions
about how the world works and your experience. For me, the systems
metaphor provides a very useful set of assumptions and thus enhances my
ability to respond to the situations in which I find myself in a
generative rather than reactive manner--at least most of the time. I
think that approach is the most responsible.
-- John Woods jwoods@execpc.com