Familial Duty and Responsibility - Essay Example

Americans could learn from the east’s focus on a strong social fabric. In the east, most feel a healthy society is necessary, even if one must sacrifice their own individuality. Family loyalty is a cornerstone of this philosophy. A healthy society starts with a healthy family. In America, the family unit has broken down due to the lack of familial duty. Husbands and fathers do not take responsibility for their children, marriage vows are not taken seriously, and neglected children grow up to neglect their elderly parents.

If Americans followed the east’s example of duty and responsibility toward family, many social ills would be eradicated. In the east, familial duty is extremely important. This duty creates a bond between family members that helps create a strong society. One example of the loyalty is towards the elderly. Children feel a duty to care for elderly parents. Instead of placing their elderly in nursing homes or elderly retirement centers, it is common for three or four generations to live under one roof.

This not only helps the elderly, but the whole family unit. Both parents can work outside of the home, while grandparents can watch their grandchildren. This helps family finances by eliminating not only the cost of caring for an elderly parent outside the home, but the cost of daycare as well. The advantages of having several generations in one house can benefit more than the family, but society as a whole. If grandparents are home when children go and come home from school, children are less likely to get into trouble.

If a child does get into trouble, an adult is there to handle the problem. Teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol use, criminal activity, and other mischief would be controlled by a loving grandparent. Another example of how familial loyalty could benefit Americans would be in marriage. In the east, duty comes first. Marriage is a duty. In America, many individuals do what makes them individually happy, not what makes others happy. Extra marital affairs and divorce are common. This breaks the familial unit.

For Americans to embrace and benefit the eastern way of life, marriage would have to be taken more seriously. When an individual does what makes them happy, then others around them do the same. Americans have forgotten to treat people how they want to be treated. Why would children want to take care of parents that put them through messy divorces? Divorced parents do not understand why children grow up so bitter. They have taught their children to be self centered, just themselves. Thus, just like a single, divorced, or married parent warehouses their children in daycare or by simply leaving them by themselves after school, their children grow up to place them in a retirement home or not visit at all.

Individualism might make a person happy in the short run, but only temporarily.Americans only feel a duty to making themselves happy, whereas those from the east feel duty towards society and others as a whole. The eastern way makes more sense. Happiness is more likely to be achieved if more than one individual works at it. By following one’s duty, an individual might not be working to make themselves happy, but their spouse, parent, children, neighbor, coworker, and friends are working toward fulfilling their duty to the individual.

Americans work their whole life to achieve emotional and material fulfillment, but in the end are left feeling empty due to their individualism. On the other hand, by fulfilling their duties, individuals in the east are content by their position in a close familial unit. Although individualism is what makes America unique, Americans could learn to be happier though a closer and happier society as a whole.