People need to take personal responsibility.  When did society decide that people no longer need to take personal responsibility?
There have been a couple events within the last few weeks that have really made me reflect on the fact that personal responsibility is a has-been these days.
The first situation occurred while sitting in my living room watching a special report about prisons on MSNBC. On the program an inmate was interviewed from a high-security prison in Kentucky. Throughout the interview the inmate discussed his violent day-to-day episodes within the prison against officers and other inmates.
Shortly after his interview, a family member of his was interviewed about how she felt about the conditions her brother was living in.
This woman discussed the idea that she felt that it is the justice system that probes these inmates to act violently within the prison environment, and she said that she did not feel it was a humane place for this man to serve his sentence.
This inmate is incarcerated for 16 counts of rape and two counts of murder.
Obviously, the inmate in question is incarcerated for violent crimes. Why then, would someone assume that their violent behavior within the prison is a result of their environment? He has shown previous signs of violence and yet someone thinks it’s the prison that is causing him to continue.
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. This man is violent by nature. It is absurd to me that someone would try to excuse his acts based on the prison, when his whole purpose for being there is because he acted violent towards others. Take some personal responsibility and own up to the things you do.
A second incident happened while I was at work. Working at a daycare, every day is a constant battle of he said-she said between children.
Children will have disagreements and children will be mean, but when it comes to talking to their parents about how their child has wronged another, you better believe that it is not their child’s fault.
Constantly parents say, “My child would never do that,” or “Well what did the other child do to make him act that way?”
Yes, kids will be kids, but when do we teach them to take responsibility for themselves? When will they learn that they need to be responsible for their actions and not let others take the brunt for the poor choices they make?
It’s situations like these that make me wonder.
I remember that my parents would never let me place blame on anybody else if I got in trouble as a child. And they always told me that if I was responsible enough to get myself arrested or in any other sort of big trouble than I would need to be responsible enough to get myself out of it.
What happened to this ethic?
I believe that a society where people are allowed to place blame on everything but themselves is a weak one.
People make mistakes, but it is by those mistakes that we are able to learn and grow as people. By placing blame on others rather than taking responsibility for our own actions, only masks the issue; it never really solves it.
I think people are just afraid to own up to their personal mistakes. People are afraid to face the consequences, and they would rather bring others down with them than to go down alone.
If this is where society’s future is heading, to a place where problems are passed around rather than where people own up to their actions, then I believe that we will begin to see some bad changes. I believe we will begin to see a rise in dishonesty and a rise in manipulation and a rise in poor choices.
If we as a society do not decide to own up to our actions, I am afraid to see what the world holds for future generations.