December 18, 2008, 4:12 pm
A Nation of Excuses
How many times do people say that? It seems like nobody takes responsibility for anything anymore.
Homeowners were "duped" into signing mortgages they couldn't afford. Carmakers are not the victims of their own poor choices but victims of the economy and Saudi Arabia. States aren't victims of their own mismanagement of their budgets, but victims of lower tax revenues. People living in hurricane zones are "victims" because the government didn't help them, as if FEMA is prescribed in Article 2 Section 8 of the Constitution.
That's not to say there aren't legitimate victims...the people who go to work every day and will lose their jobs because of the economic crisis are certainly in this group.
But it seems that we've developed a culture of victimization. "It's not my fault" is a mantra and "It's because..." is a watchword.
It seems that people abdicate personal responsibility because they want to feel less responsible for their circumstances. "I failed because..." "It's not my fault I lost my job..." No, you failed because you didn't go to class, and you lost your job because you didn't do a good job at work. Period. You know that, so why lie to the rest of the world?
Taking personal responsibility can be hard, but it does have some benefits. Like the ability to forgive oneself, and the fact that others don't look at you skeptically going "uh huh, I'm sure that's why." Plus, it revokes the authority of "circumstances" and puts it back where it belongs: with the person. It makes us managers of our own lives, rather than wondering how we got here, and makes the circumstances we genuinely can't control (the economy, the weather) into more manageable events.
Otherwise we're just a nation of excuses.
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Comments:
ycbassoon03 wrote on December 19, 2008, 11:02 am:
"No, you failed because you didn't go to class..."
The person who said this sounds like a very wise man....
pianoguy wrote on December 19, 2008, 1:03 pm:
THIS is well said. I've often moaned about this whilst I listen to or read the news.
I know that there were sharks out there, with the usual zero moral scruples, and PT Barnum was right when he said that there was a sucker born every minute. But my father always taught me that, if it sounded too good to be true, then it probably was.
When someone promises you a house, and you are on public assistance, that oughta set off alarm bells. Heck, I was pre-approved by my (still in business) bank for MUCH more than Iknew my budget could afford. I asked them "why" and they said, basically, "well, we know based on our credit profile that you'd probably not actually buy a house for that much". Nice of them to admit that! Well, good thing I didn't, because paying for what I did buy was plenty on a month-to-month basis, and of course NOW it's worth less than I paid, and even less than my loan balance after 4 years of "payments" (okay: do it wasn't a real estate investment, it's where I wanted to live). But so much for the down payment and/or moving any time soon. :O)