The other day I had a discussion with someone, concering how people seem to blame others so often for their troubles nowadays. It always seems like its "someone else's fault", and that "someone has to pay for this". But whatever happened to taking responsibility for your own actions?
Our society has slowly become one of convenience, due in large part to the availability of technology. Ease of use has lead us into a false sense of how "the world owes me something", where we assume that because we feel some semblence of control in our lives, that we also feel a certain amount of ownership and the benefits that it provides. Like a child who presses the power button on a TV remote for the first time, turning the TV on and off, this feeling of control and ownership is both captivating and addictive. Soon, every power button we see becomes a symbol of what we can control. And subsequently, we begin to act on the virtual power buttons that surround us daily. Its the social enactment of "what's mine is mine, watch me do it". Do we become opportunists, who seek to take advantage of every virtual power button we can find -- whether it be for good or for evil -- as long as it serves our purpose? Wouldn't it be a fair assumption that what also comes with ownership and control, is the responsibility of taking care of problems -- problems that we also own? What ever happened to social responsibility anyways? Has it become a legend of sorts? Is social responsibility becoming "uncool" and "outdated"?
In the early days, some time before lawsuits became normal, people actually stood up and admitted when they screwed up. When a bad thing happened, someone somewhere admitted guilt, with all the intention of fixing the problem and correcting a mistake. And society understood, typically forgave, and moved on.
Somehow, the advent of "blame" made its way into social acceptance, and became a convenience that people could leverage for their own good. With technology, the ability to demonstrate blame gathered even more credibility, as people learned to tabulate data, record evidence, perform comparative studies and assert conclusions. Where does this happen? Think emails, text messages, anything that becomes a smoking gun that proves "its not my fault".
We see it happening every day on the news and online.
Smokers blaming Phillip Morris for their health problems, when they knew smoking probably wasn't the most healthy thing to do. Parents suing McDonalds because, God forbid, their burgers have a lot of fat content which can cause obesity! And how about celebrities who blame addictions for their bad behavior?
Give me a break, folks.
America needs to get back to its roots, and become mature adults again. Learn what the term "my bad" means, and use it for goodness sake. Stop finding some person, or some addiction, or some corporation to blame for bad decisions you make.
Ultimately, you are both owner and controller of everything you decide and do. Instead of leveraging technology to help you blame someone else, why not use technology to learn what you did wrong, and actually fix what you caused?