Very good comment Budd!
on Personal Responsibility. As Eugene Levy Says: "response....able".
seriously though....I like the old saying "to thine own self be true".
On Beliefs: you mention attachment. A very key point, we form attachments or associations based on our experiences, which may or may not be reality. (Cognitive Dissonance).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
Just a few hundred years ago many believed the earth was flat and you'd sail off the edge of it. Where they necessarily wrong? No, it was a unproven hypothesis at the time. However, it also did not mean they were right either! What we experience or hypothesize may not always be reality...again. Cognitive Dissonance...a very important concept I think wrt Martial arts.
Belonging: I think it his human to want/need to belong or identify with a group. Nothing wrong with that, however I agree with your point concerning "competence by association".
Again good points. This isn't sexy stuff that people want to discuss...but I think it is baseline skill that we must come to terms with in our studies if we want to grow in our understanding of the DO.