By: Jeremy R. Rutherford
So, you hear it all the time. Mis-placed blame. But it has become such a "norm" for society to do it, that no one bats an eye.
Platitudes and actuals...
Plat: "There is evil in the man who does nothing to stop evil taking place."
Actual: The person doing the evil had the choice all along not to do it, there should not have to be a moral babysitter laying in wait to stop them, nor an expectation for someone to step up and assume the role.
Plat: "I wasn't in control of myself, I'm not reaponsible, [X] substance took away my ability to judge correctly."
Actual: By proxy, you are indeed responsible for any and all actions taken and done while under the influence of a substance, (unless it was forced upon you without personal knowledge). By making the choice to the bottle, needle, pill, inhale or abuse, not only are your actions and words a consequence of your choices, so is your possible addiction. You made the choice to open the door.
Plat: "It's nature vs. nurture, environment, situational, society, or etc. outside of myself as an individual, free-thinking being.
Actual: This only applies to children who have not reached an affirmable stage of mental capacity beyond magical thinking. Once they have reached an age of reason/ responsibility and the sensibilities of their personal social sphere of right vs. wrong, it no longer applies.
Plat: "The orders should have been ignored."
Actual: Under a line of command, the responsibility of such orders that might be found questionable is transferred to the person giving them, that is who needs to be looked at, not the person being used to carry them out.
Unless there is a situation that can be objectively proven where the individual in question is beyond the scope of socially acceptable mental capacity, we are each personally and individually accountable for our words, choices, actions and consequences. Blame has no rightful place except squarely where it belongs.
Analyzing choices before they are made in relation to the possible and already existing situations that we have placed ourselves in (previously and also by choice) allows us to see the points of consequence that may occur before they do.
