• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

I wish I could say I always wore a helmet, but I didn’t. California had no helmet law at the time, and as I grew more comfortable with the bike and my skills, I increasingly rode with my head exposed. I particularly enjoyed doing this when I could entice a date to ride along—she got the helmet while I played the daredevil with a leather jacket, sunglasses, and flowing locks.

Of course it was stupid. There is nothing I should have wanted to protect more than my head. I was aware of the risks of riding motorcycles, especially in San Francisco. I had a couple of near-accidents. But I refused to think about the risks, instead focusing on the joy of helmet-free adventure. The risks were abstract, and the benefits were immediate and concrete.

Let me ask about personal responsibility in this context.

We should start by assuming that the phrase “personal responsibility” means something, and that it is meant as a guide not only for individuals but for public policy. Let’s try to figure out what the phrase could mean in the context of my stupidity about motorcycle helmets, and also ask whether the law should care.

On an individual level, the answer seems pretty easy. To ride without a helmet is daft and shortsighted, putting me at risk of massive injury in exchange for fleeting benefits. Moreover, the risks flow not only to myself but to others, even if no one else would likely be physically harmed. The risks that others bear because of my stupidity are indirect but no less real. Those who love me—my family and friends—are at risk of suffering emotionally if I am injured. Emotional harms will also occur to those who witness any accident, whether they know me or not. Someone will have to pay for my injuries, and if I am insolvent or do not have sufficient insurance, then hospitals or taxpayers will foot the bill. If I am laid up, society temporarily loses whatever benefits I would normally provide others through my productivity at work, voluntary activities, life at home, and general good humor. If I die, society loses those benefits forever. So if I was bound for glory as the mapper of the human genome, but I die in a motorcycle accident, then someone else has to do that. Society suffers the costs of the difference between my abilities and the next genome mapper’s.

So if personal responsibility indeed means being responsible, then we should act with due attention to the costs our behavior imposes on ourselves and others. This is the kind of personal responsibility that President Obama exhorted children to remember as they began their school year. Act with responsibility. Do your duty to yourself and your family. Remember that the one most responsible for taking care of you is you.

If that’s what we mean, then it’s clear that a person who cares about personal responsibility should wear a helmet. The sight of a motorcycle rider without a helmet is a counterexample to personal responsibility, an affront.

Or maybe not. Perhaps personal responsibility is best understood to mean that individuals get to make the choice for themselves about wearing a helmet. In this sense, personal responsibility is not necessarily about maturity but about who gets to decide. People make their own choices; they are masters of their fate. They can decide to be stupid or thoughtful, shortsighted or mature. They can care about risks or care about looking cool. It’s up to them. It’s their responsibility. In other words, choice itself is personal responsibility.

If that’s what we mean, then a motorcycle gang rolling down the street without helmets is the epitome of personal responsibility. They are making their own choices. If I choose to look cool on a motorcycle by not protecting my skull, I am exercising personal responsibility because I have made my own choice.

Notice how odd this is. If I choose to be immature and shortsighted, then I am exercising personal responsibility because it’s my own choice to be immature and shortsighted. When couched in this way, the idea makes little sense. If personal