But He's a Good Kid!

I just finished reading an article relating parental negligence to juvenile crime.  The point of the article:  we’ve lost our sense of accountability.

And the comments on the article pretty much proved the point.

Apparently, juvenile crime happens because “we” “forced” people to have babies.  Let’s think about this….

“We” is used to categorize society as a whole.  I am part of that society, so that implies I am guilty.  So if someone randomly shoots my child for fun, it was all my fault to begin with?  Wow, yep, what a way to have ZERO accountability.

In order to have a baby, you have to have sex.  So if I’m forcing people to have babies, I would have to be forcing them to have sex.  Why am I having trouble recalling these events?  And when do I find the time to do this, anyways?  I guess that explains why it’s sometimes hard to find time to have sex myself! 

If we avoid accountability, we can avoid blame.  If we avoid blame, we avoid guilt.  If we avoid guilt, we don’t feel bad about what we do.  If we don’t feel bad about what we do, we can do whatever we want and not feel responsibility for it.  See the way that works?  It perpetuates itself.  There is no reason for the behavior to stop.  It’s all someone else’s fault and we have no control.

And that’s why “we” have no control.  It’s the fault of Obama or the fault of the Republicans or the fault of religion A, religion B, or religion XYZ.  It’s the fault of a gun or lack of guns.  It’s because there are too many people on welfare or too many wealthy people.  It’s all because it rained when the sun was supposed to be out.

If we want to live somewhere that just doesn’t keep losing even more control, we need to realize a very simple fact.  People are responsible for their own behavior.  That’s it.  Period.

And if you have a child, you are responsible for teaching them that, whether you planned that child or not.  Grownups need to grow up, and people need to stop making excuses for them.

Yes, I know accountability and responsibility can be hard.  I also think it's extremely arrogant to think that others aren't capable of it.  And I know I'm probably not changing anyone's mind. 

That’s why they have wine.