Responsibility vital to society
In the face of more daunting questions of morality, whether to leave a note when you hit someone else’s car in the parking lot may seem a negligible decision. But the avoidance of such a small responsibility has larger implications.
Bumping another car falls under this sense of responsibility. You can’t know how much the damage to the car, whatever it is, will harm its owner. To leave the scene without any kind of communication is a deliberate choice that knowingly inflicts harm.
Although a dent on a bumper is a fairly small responsibility to avoid, the “me first” attitude of ignoring it carries implicit danger. When examining the reasoning behind a hit-and-run accident, for instance, we see this same avoidance of potential harm to ourselves at the expense of harm to others. Indeed, for any responsibility — parental, financial, educational — avoidance of it can be traced back to this egocentric attitude.
Now, this is not an out-and-out condemnation of egocentrism. We are first and foremost responsible for ourselves. However, the nature of society puts us into a relationship with our fellow human beings, and all relationships require mutual responsibility. Therefore, we must acknowledge even the smallest harms as the effects of our actions and make amends.
Writing a note takes two minutes. You can spare them.
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