The Blame Game

An addition somewhere in the last paragraph of my last post should perhaps be "I don't want you to think I'm just stupid, pathetic or weak willed because I do sacrifice things, because I do put up with things, because I do lend a hand without asking for anything in return, because I do sometimes do the "right thing" rather than what benefits me personally most".

Moving on to todays rant (actually a repost of something I wrote elsewhere)

The question for today is: Should people be allowed to make their own mistakes? And the follow on, should they be forced to take responsibility for them when they do?

There are two powerful, but opposite currents in society: Independence and Litigation. Should we be allowed to make our own mistakes? For example, decide to smoke despite the fact there is a huge body of evidence that shows it will probably kill you, and at the very least make you very unhealthy, have stained teeth and smell funny? Should we be allowed to sue tobacco companies when smoking does in fact, do this to us? The answer to both questions cannot be yes. Either you expect someone else to take responsibility for you, and then feel, quite rightly, let down if they don't. Or you are allowed to make your own way, but then have nobody to blame but yourself when you screw up.

You cannot sue for negligence (in essence for failing to uphold a responsibility) somebody who you didn't allow the power to enforce that responsibility. If you do not let people tell you what to do, you can't sue them for not having done so. You can't sue someone else for your own failure to allow people to advise and instruct you.

There is, of course, some kind of compromise. We don't have to be either totally autonomous, or totally dependent. But where the line is drawn must be clear, and universal. Flexibility will only lead to exploitation. Either people breaking the rules, but promising not to sue someone in future if it goes pear shaped, or suing people for not telling them that which nobody else needed to be told.

Personally, I would side on autonomy. I feel litigation is getting way out hand. We sue because nobody wiped our nose for us, for the slow realisation that we're complete idiots unable to walk on uneven surfaces, who don't know coffee is hot, or ice is slippy, or that sticking your hand in a grinder will render it useless for the rest of your life. I don't need to be told beef burgers are unhealthy, that I shouldn't eat rat poison, apply glue to my eyes or any of a number of other stupid warnings on modern products. Neither do I feel I have the right to sue someone if I had failed to realise these blindingly obvious facts.

Having said that... it is fairly obvious that a large section of the population isn't imbued with enough common sense or mental ability to realise some very obvious things, and they perhaps need nannying for their own good. There are a number of medical conditions that lead of obesity, but there are far more people who end up obese due to complete stupidity and an total inability to look after themselves. They are of course, exactly the people who blame everyone but themselves for the condition. "Its advertising! it makes fatty food impossible to resist!" - get a spine goddamnit! No it doesn't. "It's supermarkets, they put too much salt in their foods!" Granted, but you also poor half the salt shaker on it yourself no doubt.

Ultimately we must take responsibility for the way we live our lives, accept our mistakes, because doing so is the only way to learn from them and move on. But to copy a quote I sometimes put in my email signature:

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
- Douglas Adams

This also applies to our ability to learn from our own experience. We show a remarkable determination to repeat our own mistakes due in part, to our inability to accept them as our mistakes and not something someone else should have prevented.