So, the phenomena continues, people suing fast food for making them obese, suing video games for making their children violent, suing websites for making their children commit suicide.
The following shouldn't be taken as a direct critique of any events listed above. It's a parody of sorts, but not meant to lessen any tragic events seriousness. Death isn't funny, violence isn't right.
So saying:
[[ Well, I'm taking responsibility for my actions. Yes, I went to a website and learned how to be/have/get XYZ and now I've got XYZ coming out the wazoo. It's great! I didn't want to have anything to do with XYZ, but after seeing/watching/reading about XYZ, I completely changed who and what I am/stand for/think and am a better/more capable/confident/wealthy XYZ'er.
If it wasn't for that website/book/game/food, I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have had the will to succeed/continue/follow through. Because I am a weak weak person.
But that's the old me. With all of my XYZ, I am a magnet for success/supermodels and other words beginning with the letter S. XYZ has made me faster/stronger/smarter/healthier.
I'm getting offers I'd never get before, people throw money at me and give me things.
Thanks XYZ.
Where before I couldn't keep a diet, do my homework, wake up early; where I didn't have motivation and was depressed, feeling unaccepted and misunderstood. Whereas I used to be an outsider, shunned and ridiculed.
Where I used to be responsible for my own actions, now I don't even have that. Everything is cause and effect. Post hoc ergo prompter hoc. It isn't my/our/his/her/their fault. The devil/game/show/person/thing made them do it.
End.]]
What has happened to education/upbringing that would cause this? I can understand not wanting to feel responsible for being overweight, or poor, or for death and violence. But throwing the responsibility elsewhere doesn't improve things.
I'm not saying that these events are the responsibility of any one thing/person etc. There are no islands in society. We are all part of a system and are connected to many many other parts. Trying to trace a single thread of causality would be more difficult than trying to trace the wind back to a butterfly. It can't be done, because there is no pure source of influence. There are too many sources for any one to be `the cause.'
We can latch on one though, we can choose to obsess over it, and make it ours. But that really depends upon choice. Our decision to do so. Admittedly we do many things that are not terribly smart in our life. We go out in the cold with too little clothing on, we drink more than we should and pay for it later, we spend more than we planned. There is no denying influence. But was it our choice or not?
I suppose that's a tricky question. Peer pressure, etc are powerful things. But in my opinion, it comes down to what we are willing to do. To choose to fit in or not. To try and cope or give up. To succeed or opt out.
And that is determined by who we are and how we grew up. Our environment, our choices, our errors, and an unmeasureable number of other things that make us who we are. Could the presence of a teddy bear at the age of three make us more or less likely to watch violent movies now? Or could being allowed to stay up late one night at the age of five to watch a scary movie be the cause of an aversion to ice cream years later?
I don't know.
Events can be difficult enough. They can be tragic.
Was a video game responsible? Or a role-playing game? A book? A tv show or movie? Maybe. Maybe not. They may have carried the seed of the idea, but that idea must take form within us. And out own sense of right/wrong, sense and folly must take predominance. Our ability to choose, to know wisdom and to have made mistakes and learned from them is important.
We don't know everything, we must learn. Through hard lessons, tough choices and events that make us who we are. I've learned things from what I've gone through that made me more aware of who I am, and how things work. I didn't realize these things before, I didn't `know' them. They were hard things to learn, but I learned them.
Perhaps I made mistakes, but I chose them.
Posted by hugin at Noviembre 16, 2003 10:53 AM