Grade 9 Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao Modyul: Karapatan at Tungkulin ng Tao
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Isang tanyag na linya mula sa pelikulang Spiderman na pinagbibidahan ni Tobey Maguire bilang “Peter Parker”. Ano nga ba ang mensaheng nais ipabatid ng linyang ito? Simple lang! Ang ibig sabihin nito ay kapag ika’y may kapangyarihan, mayroon din itong mabigat na resposibilidad. Bagay lamang na dapat mong isipin nang mabuti bago tanggapin o gampanan ang kapangyarihan na ito. Gayundin, kapag ikaw ay napagkalooban ng mga karapatan, ito ay may kaakibat na resposibilidad o tungkulin.
Sa modyul na ito, pag-aaralan at pag-iisipan mo ang kalikasan ng karapatan at kaakibat nitong mga tungkulin. Mahalagang maunawaan ang mga ito upang magamit mo ng may kahusayan ang iyong mga karapatan at mga obligasyong iyongkailangan namang gampanan.
Pagkatapos talakayin ang modyul na ito, inaasahan na maisasagawa mo ang sumusunod:
Kasanayang Pampagkatuto
5.1 Natutukoy ang mga karapatan at tungkulin ng tao.
5.2 Nasusuri ang mga paglabag sa karapatang pantao na umiiral sa pamilya, barangay/pamayanan o lipunan/bansa.
5.3 Napatutunayan na ang karapatan ay magkakaroon ng tunay na kabuluhan kung gagampanan ng tao ang kanyang tungkulin na kilalanin at unawain, gamit ang kanyang katuwiran, ang pagkakapantay-pantay ng dignidad ng lahat ng tao.
5.4 Naisasagawa ang mga angkop na kilos upang ituwid ang mga nagawa o naobserbang paglabag sa mga karapatang pantao sa pamilya, paaralan, barangay/pamayanan o lipunan/bansa.
Grade 9 Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao Ikalawang Markahan Modyul: Karapatan at Tungkulin ng Tao
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‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility’: From Age-Old Axiom to Spider-Man’s Mantra
It all started with Jesus. Or Muhammad. Or the Reign of Terror.
While writing the majority opinion for a 2015 Supreme Court case involving royalties for toy web shooters, Justice Elena Kagan seized the opportunity to toss in a few nods to Spider-Man.
“[In] this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility,” she wrote, in reference to the court’s restraint at overturning precedent.
That axiom, often rendered as with great power comes great responsibility , is most closely associated with Peter Parker’s uncle Ben. But Uncle Ben didn’t originate it—and in fact, he wasn’t even the first fictional father figure to say it to a young superhero.
Who Said “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”?
World leaders take up the torch, spider-man: here he comes.
People have been articulating the idea that power comes with responsibility for at least a couple thousand years. You can see shades of it in Christianity’s Parable of the Faithful Servant, in which Jesus tells his disciples that a servant placed in charge of the household shouldn’t take advantage of their master’s absence by carousing and mistreating the other servants.
“For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required,” reads one iteration in the New King James Version of the Bible . Islam has a similar message in one of the prophet Muhammad’s hadiths , translated from Arabic as “All of you are shepherds and every one of you is responsible for his herd.”
Though Voltaire is sometimes credited with coining the phrase with great power comes great responsibility , Quote Investigator couldn’t locate it in any of his writings. The earliest citation they identified is from 15 years after Voltaire’s death, in a 1793 decree written by members of France’s National Convention (the assembly that replaced the monarchy during the French Revolution ).
“ [Les Représentans du peuple] doivent envisager qu’une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d’un grand pouvoir ,” they wrote, roughly translated as “[The people’s representatives] must consider that great responsibility follows inseparably from great power.”
Quote Investigator also unearthed enough 19th-century references to suggest that the expression was a pretty popular thing to include in any musings on power. In 1817, for example, British parliamentarian (and future prime minister) William Lamb deployed it during a debate in which he “[reminded] the conductors of the press of their duty to apply to themselves a maxim which they never neglected to urge on the consideration of government—‘that the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility.’” He was warning journalists not to let their own “interests” and “passions” get in the way of their service to “justice” and “truth.”
Lamb wasn’t the only future prime minister to utter the phrase on the floor of the House of Commons. In 1906, during a debate about how to handle systemic racial injustice in South Africa (and Great Britain’s colonies at large), Winston Churchill used it to express his opinion that their duty to intervene was “directly proportionate” to their power in a given territory. “Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility,” he said .
Both Presidents Roosevelt invoked the adage, too— Theodore in a 1908 letter and Franklin in a 1945 undelivered radio address .
“I believe in a strong executive; I believe in power; but I believe that responsibility should go with power, and that it is not well that the strong executive should be a perpetual one,” TR wrote while explaining why he wouldn’t run for office a third time. (He actually did end up running again in 1912, but that fact doesn’t necessarily contradict what he said about power’s relationship to responsibility: He ran out of a sense of duty to steer the country back toward progressivism.)
For FDR, the responsibility in question had to do with using power to bring about peace: “Today we have learned in the agony of war that great power involves great responsibility. … We seek peace—enduring peace. More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars—yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman, and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.”
He passed away before he could give the speech, but it was widely printed in newspapers days after his death. Just three years later, with great power comes great responsibility surfaced yet again—this time in reference to literal superpowers.
At the end of the first episode of Columbia Pictures’ 15-part film serial Superman , Jonathan Kent has a pivotal heart-to-heart with his adopted son, Clark.
“You’re different from other people,” he says. “Your unique abilities make you a kind of ‘super-man.’ Because of these great powers—your speed and strength, your X-ray vision and super-sensitive hearing—you have a great responsibility.”
That responsibility, Jonathan explains, is not only to “use them always in the interest of truth, tolerance, and justice,” but also to “go where they can be best put to use.” It’s not exactly a gentle nudge to get his son to fly the coop—he literally tells him “you must leave this farm.” So Clark heads to Metropolis (though only after Mr. and Mrs. Kent have died), and the rest is, if not history, at least common knowledge.
But one fleeting reference in a 1940s film serial is hardly enough to glue with power comes great responsibility to Superman, especially not when it’s competing against decades’ worth of mentions in Spider-Man stories.
The expression first appeared in the first-ever Spider-Man comic, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and published in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 . Peter Parker uses his newfound abilities to turn Spider-Man into a TV sensation, and the fame makes him so self-involved that he won’t even stop a thief who runs right by him. When that same thief murders Uncle Ben mere days later, Peter is forced to reckon with who he has become.
“And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility!” reads the closing panel .
So while Uncle Ben did inspire the phrasing, he didn’t originally say it himself. He would later, though—first, per GoCollect’s Luke Smith , in a 1972 music-comic fusion album called The Amazing Spider-Man: A Rockomic! .
“What was it Uncle Ben used to tell me?” Peter says . “I remember, he used to say, ‘Petey, never forget—the stronger the man, the heavier the load. With great power comes great responsibility.’”
It came up a couple times in the 1980s, too: once when Peter hallucinates Uncle Ben during a battle in 1986’s The Amazing Spider-Man #274 ; and again when Peter recalls Uncle Ben’s words in 1987’s Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 .
Sam Raimi’s 2002 film Spider-Man reinforced Uncle Ben’s association with the phrase: He says it to Peter by way of explaining why it’s not always good to beat someone up just because you can.
In short, with great power comes great responsibility is a key element of Spider-Man’s character development and it has been since the very beginning. The phrase is so closely tied to Uncle Ben at this point that it’s even become a bit of a cliché, and creators of late have looked for new ways to retain the message without having him say it word for word (or at all). In 2021’s Tom Holland–starring Spider-Man: No Way Home , for example, it’s Aunt May who says it, and she uses the formulation from Amazing Fantasy #15 . In 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , Miles Morales’s dad tells him that “with great ability comes great accountability.”
“That’s not even how the saying goes, Dad,” Miles says. France’s National Convention would agree.
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With great power comes great responsibility – Essay, Meaning
January 19, 2020 by Sandeep
Essay on With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility – Expansion of Idea
‘With great power comes great responsibility.’- While most of the world credit fictional character Ben Parker to have first quoted it in the famous Spiderman series, the first person to actually mention it was the 18th century French enlightenment writer named François-Marie Arouet, who is more conventionally remembered as Voltaire.
While what he preaches through, it is suitable for a morally upright person who has been in power, but it does not explicitly apply to every powerful character in this world. Every human wishes to impose his thoughts and ideologies upon others to be able to make life easier for themselves.
Compromise is second to this. Fortunately, most people have to choose the latter only because they are not in possession of power. But ambitious people, who have a vision for their society, nation or the world altogether, often tend to break their limits to attain the position of great power.
It is then, their opinion matters enough to be able to affect the thoughts of the people he is surrounded by. But the most important catch here is how well he manages this great power he has been bestowed with. Does he use it holding on to humane ethics, or does he let it intoxicate his soul?
Power and its influence
Power is a term with varied interpretation, but the core meaning of the word remains the same- to influence any decision and action. This is the sole reason that enamours people to attain it. Power comes in various forms and influences people accordingly. One type is the physical type, the power of the body. Naturally, every non-disabled person is gifted with this one.
The ability to walk, run, lift things and carry out other days to day life activities. Notice how every bodily action that one is capable of is an attempt to influence their surroundings. What differentiates physical power from great physical power is strength.
Power channels its influence through two mediums- respect and fear. Naturally, building muscles, stamina and endurance will give any person the physical ability to achieve things far better than an average human. They can run faster, lift heavier and are hardened.
The natural medium of channelling influence through physical power is fear. It is very evident when a being possessing physical powers beyond our limit, it intimidates us strongly. The 2017 Delhi Zoo incident, where a 22 year old man fell into a white tiger enclosure, which had trended on social media and news channels for various reasons, is a perfect example of how physical power strikes fear in the hearts of physically weak.
We have domesticated small cats but not tigers or lions , just because smaller cats are physically weaker than us, while tigers are physically stronger than us. The case is similar for interpersonal relations too. People would tend to stay on the good pages of a physically strong person; unless they possess power in other sorts.
The power which can counter physical power is mental power. The human brain is the most advanced brain that is known to this planet so far. Inventions and discoveries are evidence of this statement.
While we are the most intelligent species, at the same time, we are also physically fragile, hence to make up for that, we invented many things which help us protect ourselves and preserve our welfare.
A competent person is someone who has knowledge. Wisdom is the weapon of the sages. Hence, the importance of education and general awareness should be instilled in an individual from a young age.
While mind power can get a person some position of power, it is the power of expression that will put them in a much more advantageous position. A good grasp over language and oration attracts people as it is able to stir the emotions inside the common folk.
The best of the world leaders have been unmatched orators who were able to tap into the mob sentiment and harness it to influence their decisions. Paired with exceptional wisdom and experience, the power of expression has emerged as a deciding factor for leaders to be chosen.
Finally, there also exists the power of ethics. We, the people of India, have given unto ourselves a constitution . Similarly have many other nations. The constitution is a general rule book consisting of rules and regulations that govern a country.
This is a major feat as influencing the decisions of people across a whole nation is no easy feat. But legal powers are an artificial power, created and compiled by humans, hence needs human intervention to be enforced upon other people. They can command both respect and fear amongst the citizens of the nation they belong to.
The Power-Responsibility Continuum
Power tends to corrupt; hence great power can lead to absolute corruption. John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, a famous English historian, had once stated- ‘Great men are almost always bad men’. But the way he cautiously added “almost” in his statement is proof itself that this hypothesis has exceptions.
Once in power, it’s easier to give in to the tyrannical temptations it offers than to use it judiciously. Hence it is taken for granted that a man in power is bound to become an autocrat.
But at the same time, Lord Acton’s contemporary, John le Carre, had once said- ‘All power corrupts, but some must govern.’ Hence it takes conscious efforts to keep in check ourselves and not fall into the void of avarice.
The principle of power is to influence, hence once attained; it compels people to skip the morality and infringe others’ rights. The biggest examples of this are the dictatorial states and tyrannical autocracies.
History has been a witness to one of the most brilliant of persons, who after acquiring the position of high power, blatantly gave up on their morality to commit unethical deeds.
The Jewish holocaust is an irredeemable malady that brings Hitler amongst the list of most infamous characters in the history. A brilliant strategist and an exceptional orator, Adolf Hitler had in his hand the power that most dream of.
Yet, lacking morality, he used his powers irresponsibly, which ultimately caused his downfall. Even in the 21st century, we find examples in the form of Arab and African dictators who gave in to the enticement of power. Muammar Gaddafi and Robert Mugabe are two of the best examples of the Modern Era of the irresponsible use of power.
They did start as popular leaders working for the welfare of their people, but over the course, the effects of power started to leak into their ideologies which soon led to the rule of tyranny in Libya and Zimbabwe.
But the Arab Spring was to come sooner or later, with the advent of social media and improvement in global communication which brought in with them the widespread revolutions and civil wars in Africa and middle-east.
Hence, power without responsible attitude doesn’t only bring destruction to the powerful personality, but also over his sphere of influence. Under the intoxication of power, if a person refuses to recognise his responsibilities for society becomes unaccountable and loses the trust of society.
There are enough exemplary personalities who have showcased wise utilization of power to live up to their responsibilities. The father of our nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , has been immortalised as the Mahatma. The people identified the righteousness in his use of power and trusted him to be able to lead them in their fight for independence and achieve liberty.
Probably, the most important responsibility of a man in power is the welfare of his people. And this can only be achieved if the man is morally upright and understands the value of empathy. Another famous example comes in the form of Nelson Mandela – the man responsible for the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa and making it a free nation.
What makes him different from Robert Mugabe is the fact that he knew not only empathy for the people of colour, but also their former white rulers. Mandela saw them all in the same light and took the responsibility of the welfare of both the cultures.
But Mogabe was too inclined towards Black Nationalism to the point of radicalism. Although he was able to dominate his country for years together, his flaws finally led to an unfortunate end for him.
Responsibility without power becomes irrelevant too. For a person to carry out his duties and perform up to his responsibilities, it is vital that they hold power. They should be adequately empowered to be able to entrust them with responsibilities.
Hence power and responsibility are always in a continuum, supporting each other in all aspects of life. Responsibility keeps the access of power in check while power provides a medium for responsibilities to be carried out.
Humanity has thrived seeing both the sides of the coin of power and responsibility. On the side of power exercised responsibly, the people in power were successfully able to keep the interest of the public over their self-interests and work selflessly for the improvement of the world.
Such a leader becomes a crowd favourite as he not only is in power himself but also empowers his society. On the other side of the coin are those who imposed their power irresponsibly, prioritising their personal interests over the desires of the public.
This has brought infamy and notoriety to their names and has always ended in their downfall throughout the timeline of humanity. It is important to possess moral values and humane ideologies to be able to accept power and understand the responsibilities that come with them.
It is the ethics of humanity that keep the leaders from succumbing to the temptations of tyranny which is also part and parcel of power.
Power and Responsibility follow the principle of proportionality. All power, great or small, comes with equally sizeable responsibility. Conclusively, power and responsibility are complementary.
As long as they stay together, they can peacefully govern society, but the moment this law is violated, instability gradually claws through the state of the governance.