the.com/responsibility
The hot potato nobody wants until something goes right, then everybody claims they were holding it.
means The state of being accountable for something — a duty, task, or outcome that's yours to handle and answer for.
from From the Latin respondere, 'to answer, to respond' (re-, 'back,' plus spondere, 'to pledge'). The same spondere gives us 'spouse' and 'sponsor' — all rooted in the idea of a solemn promise. So a responsible person is, quite literally, one who can be called upon to answer back, pledge in hand. The abstract noun 'responsibility' is a comparatively late arrival, an 18th-century coinage built from the older adjective 'responsible.'
- latin root
- From respondere, meaning to answer or pledge
- diffusion effect
- More witnesses means less likelihood anyone acts
- legal weight
- Liability lawsuits hinge on who owed a duty
- corporate dodge
- Mistakes were made deletes every actual subject
- buck stops
- Truman kept that sign on his desk
the nuremberg trials — 24 nazi leaders prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 1945-1946
the paris climate agreement — 195 countries committed to reducing carbon emissions to limit global warming, signed 2015