Has anyone else noticed that people no longer take responsibility for their own actions, but on the flip side they are almost always ready to be their brothers keepers? For example, They are willing to sue someone for something like burning their crotch because they placed hot coffee between their legs while driving, and are willing to tell their neighbor they do not know how to parent. Is this just a USA thing?
2006-12-16T22:35:42Z
Sloppy, I wouldn't have been burned like that because I NEVER put hot liquids near any body part I do not want to get burned. I would especially never put coffee between my legs when driving. If you would like another example, how about people suing home owners for THEIR children climbing a homeowners tree and getting hurt.
slaughter1142006-12-16T22:46:15Z
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I think it is definately a USA thing. We have become a society that does not want to feel pain at all. Just look at the pharmacutical business. We don't want to feel physical pain and we want a quick fix to emotional pain. I'm not saying that people shouldn't take antidepressants, but it is ok to feel "down" sometimes or for a while- especially if you have experienced a loss or trauma of some kind.
That being said (because it sounds like I am getting off the subject), we do not want to experience the pain of guilt, embarassment or shame, so we use the defense mechanism "blame" to get rid of that feeling.
Society and the media have helped to make "blaming" a politically correct thing to do. The media is absolutely horrible about it. They are in such a hurry to get the breaking story and the "conspiracy" to up ratings and make more $$$, that when something like a natural disaster (think Hurricane Katrina) a tragic incident (think fire, accidental shooting, or car accident) or something stupid (coffee in lap) happens, they try to find people to point fingers at and blame because "the people DESERVE answers". They cannot accept an easy answer like "accidents happen" or "can't control the weather" because you can't spend have a sensational story that brings in viewers and reaps in money on just that. Seriously, type in "blame" and any news topic into a search engine and see how many hits you get.
In turn, Joe Blow American sees this and says, "yeah! I DESERVE answers! I deserve to be paid for all of my pain and suffering!" and adopts the blaming philosophy.
You can blame 2 things; 1) The 60's. That's when lousy piece of crap nobodies decided they deserved a voice....a LOUD one. 2) lawyers! During the sixties everybody started looking to place blame for everything on someone else, and the lawyers fed off of it.