It's About Responsibility

As a species, we're never going to achieve our full potential if we can't take responsibility for our own actions, and rely on others to do the same. How many times have you heard it, the call of the helpless rationalizer? "I didn't mean to offend, I guess my Scorpio is showing." "If it was up to me, I'd say 'let gays marry', but the bible is against it, so I am too." "I can't help being passive-aggressive, I'm Jewish (or Italian, or any other excuse)." "I can't be held accountable for killing that man, society forced me to be a criminal."

I suspect that this is one of the true attractions of dogma and doctrine, be they metaphysical, political, or social. If your beliefs are unquestionable, then you obviously can't be responsible for acting on them, since they are the only way things can be. It's been observed many times that dogma always seems to agree with the personal desires of the ones espousing them. What better way to excuse doing what you really want to do than by having "no choice" but to do it?

Our entire society's view of itself is twisted by this hyper-rationalized attitude. It has gone so far that not only do individuals not take responsibility for their own actions, but society actively places responsibility for an individual's actions on others. For example, let's say that you left an expensive electronic device on the dashboard of your car, and forgot to lock your doors. Let's further say that someone subsequently opened one of those doors and stole it. When I was young, such things prompted two reactions. The first was "That was a dumb thing to do", and the second was "I hope they catch the bastard". They recognize two people, two actions, and two sets of responsibility.

Recently, in a community group meeting I was a part of, it was discussed that there had been a rash of thefts fitting this exact scenario. There were still two reactions, but they were subtly different. The first was "That was a dumb thing to do", and the second was "You really can't blame kids from the projects for doing things like this. They're poor, have no role models, and no after-school activities. If you tempt them like this, of course they'll steal." Amazingly, there are are still two acts involved, but only one of the two actors is responsible for their actions.

Of course, this is just one example, purposely picked because it is *not* religious in any way. It may not be a religious dogma, but it is dogma nonetheless, the dogma of social responsibility for the acts of the less fortunate. This is not a screed against left-wing politics, but rather an example of how dogma completely blinds one to the facts.

The most obvious blindness is the perversely (for a leftist) bigoted assumption that if someone is robbing cars, that it *must* be a) kids, and b) underprivileged (read "black") people from those nasty projects. Why can't it be a blue-collar white guy in his 40s, walking home drunk from the bar? If it is a kid, why can't it be some bored, rich kid looking to act out? Some would argue that statistics say that it's more likely to be a project kid, but is that really a good grounding to base your moralistic statements on? Maybe you should wait for some evidence, at least.

The other assumption is that, accepting the first assumption as true, it's obviously not the responsibility of the thief that they stole something, because we feel sorry for them. Believe it or not, this is the assumption that scares me more. This one basically means that you will excuse *any* act if someone has a good enough story to explain why they *had* to do it. It's scary, because this reinforces the already dangerous natural tendency for people to rationalize their own bad acts by believing a story that tells them that they had no choice.

We're not talking about a specific, desperate act perpetrated by a known person with a known set of facts that *might* mitigate the seriousness of the crime committed. We are talking about excusing entire imaginary groups that may or may not actually include any real individuals for *any* acts they might commit, before even knowing the particulars of those acts. It's wildly irrational, and can only lead to more people trying to join those groups in order to avoid responsibility.

Dogma *always* twists responsibility away from it's proper owner. Isn't it time at least for our society to grow up, if not all the individuals within it? Talk about a lack of "good role models"!