Bill Cosby's new book:

Come On People: on the Path from Victims to Victors

Co-authored by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint, MD Harvard Psychiatrist

Cosby is making some stong statements about social responsibility-- that it needs to be a closed loop social process, examining each individual's contribution to a larger problem. What's most striking is that Cosby seems to be going against the grain of society's resistance--a resistance to acknowledging a role he feels "people" play, which ultimately has negative repercussions for black society. In not so few words, he is saying "everyone--accept responsibility!"

He states:

"All of these character corrections are not being done."

"People are not coming up enough to challenge these statements, to do character corrections on these things."

Is this effective? Pointing out the defenses of another is like mentally undressing a person. It seems to be less less about willingness to listen, rather is society capable of listening? Our defenses appear to protect us from realizing what we cannot own in ourselves. Whether he's right or not does not seem to matter. People can only change what is first acknowledged as a problem in the self. Is society willing to accept and acknowledge, i.e. take ownership? While Cosby has certainly created a legagcy as a comedian and hit tv star, is society ready to hear Cosby as a man who is enraged about issues of social inequality and responsibility. How can Cosby actually produce change, developing discrepency in individuals without overwhelming and defeating his listeners? This seems to be less a problem about social responsibility and more a problem about social resistance.