["Competence and Success," by Gerd Altman, taken from PublicDomainPictures.Net; this image is in the public domain.]
After I wrote my post, "Classical Liberalism has Won the Debate" last night, I realized that I had left out a very substantial and important piece of the argument, which is exactly how responsibility is connected to both consciousness and individual rights. I've included that piece of the argument in the original post, but I'm also posting it independently.
What is it to be responsible? Responsibility is the ability to respond to problems and opportunities as they are presented to you. What is required in order to have that ability? It is the ability to properly identify when one is confronted with a problem or an opportunity, determine a course of action that is appropriate as a response to that problem or opportunity, and then execute mental and physical acts in order to carry out that course of action. All of these things require someone to be a conscious being, because these are all acts of consciousness. The ability to respond creates the responsibility to respond. A responsible actor is capable of taking action to address issues that he himself is confronted with. He is not responsible, even if he is capable, of taking actions to address issues that others are confronted with, because it cannot be assumed that he is capable to do so, and it should be assumed that those others are. In this way, consciousness not only creates responsibility but also delineates natural areas of responsibility. The very essence of adulthood is to be so fully developed in one's consciousness, that one is capable of being able to respond to the problems and opportunities that present themselves to one. If one has not attained this level of personal development, then one cannot be considered an adult. Being a responsible adult creates demands to exercise one's consciousness in order to respond to the opportunities and problems one encounters within one's natural areas of responsibility, but it also creates freedoms. When one is responsible, one is also free to choose to exercise choice within one's natural areas of responsibility, because no one else has any responsibility or right to make those choices for one. If they do so, they are infantilizing a responsible adult. That is criminal (see "Criminality with Respect to the State" for more on this). The ability to be a responsible adult is earned by accepting the consequences of taking responsibility. This state of being imbues the individual with the absolute right to act with total freedom within their natural areas of responsibility. This absolute right is inalienable and is built into the nature of consciousness itself.