Politically, there are few ideas more potent than the notion that all your problems are caused by other people and their unfairness to you. That notion was the royal road to unbridled power for Hitler, Lenin, Mao, and Pol Pot – which is to say, millions of human beings paid with their lives for believing it.
-Prof Thomas Sowell (“Contradictory Notions of Fairness”)
I wrote a post earlier today in which, according to Treehugger, everyone else should be blamed for someone’s bad outcomes in life due to “design” issues and the lack of Government regulation or laws. Accidents CAN be legislated, regulated, or designed out of existence. Or so say the SMAHT Progressive People.
I think not.
Sowell points out that even if such thinking is altruistic at times, it can also be a deadly trap set by those willing to exploit those that, because of bad decisions they have made, are all too easily convinced that they are not at fault but, by extension, certainly not responsible for their outcome. Going that next step, the morality is that it is then perfectly fine to take retribution against those people for harming them in some way. THEY MUST BE MADE TO PAY!
Like with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes that all his political problems were brought upon him by those pesky “FREEDOM!” truckers – and being the head of the Government, he certainly made them pay, didn’t he? And just like with Russian President Putin who has been blaming NATO for his current issues with Ukraine (and now leveled threats against both Sweden and Finland if they decide to join NATO).
And we see it in regular life as well. After all, Black Lives Matter has taken to declaring that all Whites cause their problems (a lack of skin color fetish, IMHO). Antifa believes that anyone, not them are the Fascists. And then the Democrats are already ginning up their election woes ahead of time in calling anyone on their Right “Extremists”.
Me? I take full credit for my mistakes and when I do stupid things, like most, I get stupid results. It seems like it’s an Adult thing – taking responsibility for oneself.
But that begs the question – why do so many people that appear to be Adults, don’t?
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
