Our Modern Society and the Eternal "Blame Game"
I remember some years ago, there was a TV commercial in which the theme was a parody of a corporate management office, in which the assembled marketing group were going to have a "Blamestorming" session in order to pin some failure of a product on someone.
Although it definitely was satire, I found myself remembering it today as I read a couple of articles/blogs in which assigning blame seemed to be the most important consideration... rather than actually problem solving and improving a situation.
A Loss of Personal Accountability...
I found myself considering this tendency against the backdrop of our family doctor currently being embroiled in a malpractice suit — which sounds frivolous, but evidently isn't — because a newborn she helped deliver (the mother was a patient) died as a result of complications from a birth defect.
Somehow, it's the doctor's fault that there was a birth defect....?
Aside from the relatively well-known fact that the USA is a horrendously litigious society, whatever happened to personal accountability and focusing on actually solving problems, as opposed to just finding someone else to blame for outcomes... and then very likely suing them into oblivion?
Shit happens. Life is unfair. Deal with it.
I'm not for a moment suggesting we should overlook genuine wrongs... but the fact that you're not feeling well today because you drank too much yesterday isn't "someone's FAULT" other than your own. Don't sue the distiller for creating an "intoxicating substance."
Although that's perhaps an exaggeration... it's there to make a point. More and more people seem to want to be "held blameless" for their own poor choices and bad decisions.
Maybe that's not the real issue... let's face it, a lot of us remember being little kids and saying "It wasn't ME!" when the ball went through a window and broke the glass. But we're not little kids anymore. We're supposedly adults, so why this "movement" towards expecting to get away with childish approaches to reality?
"Caveat Emptor," and Other Nonsense
"Let the buyer beware" is the old-time truism... to the effect that it's our responsibility to be mindful of whatever product, service or opportunity we buy into.
As regulars to these pages know, I am a regular seller on eBay.
Although eBay pressures sellers to have a return policy that basically allows buyers to return ANYthing, for ANY reason, from now till the next ice age, they do still have the ability to let a seller choose to sell items "as is" when you're obviously selling something unique or antique that is not working and you clearly state "not working/parts only" in your sales listing.
But I learned discovered today that this doesn't actually mean a damn thing... got an email today that a buyer is being allowed to return an "as is" item — with mailing costs BOTH ways being borne by the seller (me) — because "he thought it was a different color" even though both the photos and descriptions clearly showed/stated it to be GRAY, and not BLUE.
Which brings to mind the days of my former retail store where we would sometimes sell fancy dinnerware services only to have them returned for a refund "because they really weren't what we wanted," two weeks later... with signs of food scraps on the plates!
Evidently, someone just needed fancy dinnerware for an event and "rented it for free" from a retail store.
One might be inclined to jump to the conclusion that "such things only happen a TINY percentage of the time." Not... exactly. True enough, it only happens some of the time... but I've been in this gig for 25 years and the "issue" is more than it is happening 10-12 TIMES more often than it did, 20 years ago.
Sometimes I get the uneasy feeling that in a few years I will just be renting products to people, not selling them.
Teh Easter Bunneh says:
...when — and why — did we end up in this state of affairs in which we are evidently all "blameless" for any and all things? What happened to personal accountability? When did we become so entitled to have everything OUR way, without question? What happened to the simple ability to understand and accept that "If I take Action A, it will likely result in Outcome B?" Has everyone been sniffing too many magic mushrooms?
Enough said... it's getting late, and I have a busy weekend ahead. Just needed to get that out of my head before going to bed!
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful weekend!
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