When I started this post, I was really angry. Some idiot on the TV news
had just enunciated, "It wasn't my fault..." and proceeded to lay blame on
some huge, deep-pocketed corporation. And the people around him were
buying his "mea non culpa".
The Age of Non Responsibility
We have finally reached it. A new age. We started with the Ice Age, or
the Pleistocene Age, or whatever science wants to call the times that
came before us. Then, there were the Gay Nineties, (1890's) the
Roaring Twenties, (1920's) the Swinging Sixties, (1960's), the whatever
'80's and now, into the new Millenium. I am finally willing to admit it.
Which makes me a non-participant, I think. We have entered the new
age, the Age of Non-Responsibility.
What? you say...what do I mean? We have entered an age where the
prevailing mindset is, "it's not MY fault." No matter what the facts, no
matter where the smoking gun, no matter what proof to the contrary,
we as a herd (we do tend to react with the herd mentality) are not to
blame for the results of our individual actions. You abuse your children,
it's not your fault, it's how you were raised. Blame your parents. You get
caught with a gun, it's not your fault. You needed protection from the
bullies, so put them in jail. You have an accident on the freeway, and run
into the back of someone else's car. It's not your fault, the brakes on the
car didn't work, so blame the manufacturer.
When when when are we going to say enough?!? The kids are your
responsibility. I don't care if your dad beat you black and blue, you
didn't like it, did you? Then WHY would you do it to YOUR kids??
Stand up, say, "Your honor, it's my fault, I did it." Your dad may not
have paid his dues while here on this earth, but in the afterlife, he has
to answer to his maker for his transgressions. And, even if you don't
believe in an afterlife, you still have to answer to your KIDS for how
you've treated them. Hopefully, you're gonna be old someday. You
wanna do THAT alone?
Okay, you bought the gun. There are laws, licensing, and ways to get
the bullies off your back. You don't have to shoot them. Sure, they are
assholes, but that doesn't make it okay to shoot them.
So you were on the 210 and someone stopped short in front of you.
First, why in hell were you following so close? You ever hear of the
"one car length for each ten miles per hour" rule? Oh, that's right,
the rules are for everyone else. And now that you hit her, and totaled
her car, it's not your fault because the brakes on your car were faulty,
and the manufacturer is to blame? Give me a break. If you bought the
car, you tried it out, and the brakes worked fine for the past three years.
Now that you've wrecked her car, your car and who-knows-what else,
you need to blame someone else, so the manufacturer gave you bad
brakes? Come on.
They have a saying in prison. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the
time." It means, in case you need translation, if you cannot live with
the consequences of YOUR actions, then DON'T do what you are
contemplating doing. I think the translation is not even as clear as
the saying. But don't blame me. It's my computer's fault. Sue IBM.
