Stein suggests that responsibility and accountability has changed in today's world. She highlights how we take these terms and use them according to the situation. She does this by alluding to the individual and the system. Personally I understand the topic by looking at myself and school, I the individual and school the system. Suppose if my grades fall or I begin to lose interest in what I am doing. Do I as an individual take responsibility and work accordingly or do I take the easy route and pin point this change in heart as a result of the school (I hold the system accountable and that it was their responsibility)? I could blame the system and dispose of my responsibility by highlighting the faults and use them as a crutch to argue my point. Or from the other side of the fence am I as the individual responsible and there for accountable because I chose this path and now have to hit the expectations established. Am I accountable for my interests and success in school and the school responsible for providing me with the resources and capabilities to do so? In many ways I found this article interesting because I was able to relate with the topic in so much it is how I sometimes feel. I tend to procrastinate and wander away from my responsibilities and blame the fact that much of life isn't worth it at the end of the day (again the individual and the system). But then I am also reminded that it is also still worth it as if I do nothing and continue to not care I simply become a part of the system in a fashion less desirable. At least if I am productive I can make a change somewhere through this (school) and taking responsibility and being accountable rather than doing nothing and passing on responsibility and holding something else accountable for which in truth in terms of definition is intimate.

After much thought I think I have processed this and have to say.

You know what I think the issue is with "can or can we not make a difference" is. Its because we are so aimed at finding an answer and solution we over complicate a simple equation if you wish. Personally I believe this is the problem for I know that every time I think about this I always find my self in the same place. Stuck faced with either a paradox or lost in the abyss of thought that seems to be consuming me slowly and driving me insane. Every time I mull this over its always the same "conclusion" of uncertainty. And this makes me tired of the world and wants to run and escape to a better place (Trip to a deserted island anyone? One way ticket mind you). Anyways less of the pessimist but what I'm saying is by thinking about everything we lose sight and distract ourselves from what we really could be doing. We restrain ourselves by telling ourselves that the world cannot be changed and so fourth and grow the task to gastronomical sizes that make us believe we can't do it. When really we as the individual can make a difference regardless of scale (I back Frederickson on this one). I mean we have become so definitive about what change means and change isn't the world or something fabulous. Change does not have to be the glitz and glam we see, its an exaggeration in my opinion. I think one makes a difference by doing what they can to the people and things around them. Not by thinking or believing it has to be so and so. I highly doubt change came a long with a hand book or set of guidelines? My point is I feel I no longer need an answer but rather action. If one wishes to make a difference I believe you should strive for it and by doing it, making that impact is what the change is. I mean like Mr. Frederickson is an example with his involvement in the school in Bangladesh. Is he or is he not making change? The power is in our hands, its a matter of harnessing it and actually doing it. I try to say the least in the designs I do at school, doesn't make a difference but I tired and achieved it is what counts. I mean those doing the mural at the Royal Hospital is change, its changing an environment for little kids to be happier in then before. Its a difference, may no be big but its something. Our definition of change and the search for an answer is what blinds us from doing something. We trick ourselves to believe what we see is. For me change is action no matter where or what form it may been in. If I hit a wall I'll try find a way around or through it. Scale, form, medium all that doesn't matter as long as you did it and it does affect someone.

I think many made this quick conclusion, including myself, because it is easier to not think of the alternative. For if we considered the alternative we might find that this could corrupt all that we subscribe to. Hence why we accept the "choices" we have or lack of choices. In other words what we do not know does not hurt us. So in saying "there are no other choices" is simply another way of accepting life. In a sense "I'd like to retain what I believe in" is what it becomes. The reality we live in has become our mental "bunker/cave" and so because of that we accept it because that is all we know or want to know. Anything outside our mental bunker/cave can potentially destroy our belief and is therefore unsafe for us. The point is that if you take the alternative you have the chance of losing all sense of safety and everything that you once considered real. They become subjective to being worthless because we have been deceived or on the flip side. It could be positive and the outcome a revelation. However maybe that is because it is subjective to the individual i.e. the prisoner released see's the light while Neo now free must comprehend all of his actual reality. That is another story however the truth is that when poised with such a question and its concept. It makes many find it easier to choose the safest choice. Accepting we are limited because the reality we inhabit states so.
In my opinion we are in actuality not limited to what we can choose. However how we wish to accept life becomes the limiting factor. We either accept or search, the easy way out or the hard way out. The outcome could be either positive or negative and this is what we fear. We jump to the safest option so we are not harmed hence why we concluded, "there are no other choices".