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“Oh you cannot blame me for that. I only did what my mother told me to do. If she were here, she would tell you so herself”. “But that is idiotic. You have to take the responsibility and you alone”.
There are few people who are ready to take responsibility for their actions in life. A good many others hide behind the cloak of denial and pretence. There is always the wish to transfer the blame to someone else, a system, an organization or any other thing that can take the scolding of a fall from grace to grass. At times, ideologies or even principles are blamed for a deviation from the normal. Everybody is ready to accept the accolades but nobody is ready to take the blame. Man always feels exonerated and justified by his actions in that a mistake is attributed to anything but himself. Is man lead to this path by muddled ideas of morality or is he constrained by nature to act in like manner?
This buck passing attitude of man seems to be as old as man. According to the bible narration (Genesis 3; 12), when God asked Adam why he had eaten the forbidden fruit, he replied “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate”. When God asked Eve, she replied thus, “The serpent beguiled me and I ate.” The chain of blame would have continued. The serpent could have named someone else if God had not cut it short by pronouncing curses on it. One thing is common to the defences given by Adam and Eve; complete exoneration of self, capped with an assumption of the innocent guy who was manoeuvred into something he detests.
That our conscience is clear doesn’t make us more innocent than the criminal who believes in natures unequal sharing being the reason for his actions. Our ability to justify our every action can clear our conscience of guilt. Ever heard of a criminal who did not blame something or somebody for committing a crime? That should be expected since according to Betrand Russell “injustices by which we profit can always be justified by some kind of sophistry”. A condemned criminal always ends up blaming society, their parents, friends, nature or any other factor he feels can take the load off him.
What about children? Granted that the most important influence on a child is their parents, and the examples they set leave a great impression on the child. So, are children justified in attributing their failures in life to their parents? We always have a choice in life. You can take a horse to a stream but you cannot force it drink water. Parents serve as guides, role models but never can they force their character on their children. The influence and power of parents wears off as the child grows into adulthood, when they for once, question the role of his parents in his life. They can agree to be guided if pleased or rebel if unhappy.
In politics, a great many ills are perpetuated by men who feel they are fighting for the nation’s interest or national security. In this futile and selfish drive, they discard the notion of morality all in the name of hierarchy of values. The painful thing is that they implore the age-old justification “It is not our fault”. As if two wrongs make a right. Their problem is that of misguided perceptions of morality. “Can’t you see I had no choice? The country’s integrity was at stake! I did only what I had to do, why heap the blame on me?” Self-justification is very common to people who have a troubled conscience that look for philosophic reasons to justify their failures in life.
The end of the Second World War saw most German prisoners of war stating their defence “I was only following orders” instead “I chose to do what I am on trial here today for, Instead of choosing to be reprimanded, reduced in rank, court-marshalled, sent to the Russian front or being killed myself” (Manuel J.Smith). The blame goes to no other person but the individual who opted to obey orders rather than make the intelligently decision of refusal. According to Manuel J. Smith, “The responsibility incumbent upon each of us for initiating and accepting the consequences of all we do cannot be avoided by denying or ignoring it.”
It is high time people understand that the smoke screen of buck-passing is becoming obsolete. Nobody cares to hear it anymore nor does it elicit pity, rather it makes one look ridiculous; like a kid who demands his money back after eating the biscuits for which the money was exchanged. Man is a rational being hence responsible for his behaviours .The responsibility of his every action, good or bad rest on his shoulder; the defeat meant to be endured just as the victory was enjoyed. Man always has a choice, the decisions we take determines what we get out of these bargain. There is no need to transfer responsibilities, pouting “It is not our fault” Whose fault is it then? The chain is too long, Inexhaustible. No wonder God nipped the Genesis blame transfer in the bud. Who knows whom the serpent
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I come alive when I write and the feeling that those few lines may impact positively on a soul unknown to me or even elicit a smile makes it a worthwhile endeavour.
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