Problem: What implications does the following observation have for personal ethics and an individual's obligation to his or her community?
"He who lets the world choose... his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself must... use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision,discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision."
--- John Stuart Mills, On Liberty, 1859
English economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)