It’s happened. Again. And it will happen over and over until there is no one left to blame – but self.
We’ve all heard the news during the past month. One actor says it was “Ambien” that caused her to tweet a “reprehensible” message and the knee-jerk corporate reaction removes the livelihood of a host of people but leaves all other similar actors and shows alone! There! It made a statement! Now. Let’s get back to life and living in this imperfect world!
Maybe it would have made more sense if the TV network and corporation that owns it acted like another major US corporation who shut down over 8,000 stores for “bias training” after a single incident in Philadelphia and now declare all their bathrooms open to everyone, even non-customers. The result is not the action I would have thought could repair the problem, but this is one of their answers to the situation!
Then you have major politicians, actors and people in the know say school shootings can be blamed on pornography, video gaming, inattentive parents, poor education system, and since we live in a time of easily taking a life in the womb, it must be that we have created a world where life is cheap.
What I do know is that we live in a world with a host of societal ills that have become the norms that are not easily discarded, refuted or changed.
Our best action often seems to be a kneejerk reaction, much like a doctor tests our reflexes to see if we have the ability to DO something as we are affected by a force, not of our own making. If the best reaction any of us can do is to blame the gun and gun owners everywhere for the mental disease of a single individual, then we have created another scenario of playing one side against the other. So, let’s sue the gun manufacturers like the family tried to sue Caterpillar for selling one of their machines to a nation that used it to kill one of their children who politically protested another nation on their soil.
Until everyone strives to get to the bottom of “why” the “what’s” will continue to happen!
I call it “The Blame Game” and it’s played out in the public arena, and in homes, schools, playgrounds, courtrooms and workplaces around the world. Point the finger at someone else…WAIT…STOP! Do not do that!!! If you do it incorrectly then you’ll get kicked out of airports and off the playgrounds and out of schools…and who knows what workplace violence you will incite? I dare not show you what I’m talking about less someone takes away my blog privileges!
Whew! I nearly got you in trouble! And me!
It is human nature to point the finger and blame someone else for the whoa’s and ill’s we face every day. If we speak the blame loud enough and with great emotional influence, and maybe with a march or tame violence, then perhaps others will follow suit and the blame gets laid at the feet of the person or bias or inanimate object and we all walk away rejoicing because we now know who, or what, to blame! We pat ourselves on the back….”We fixed them!”
The first man, Adam, blamed the first woman, Eve, when he was caught red-handed in a sin!
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12 NKJV)
From this moment forward we have seen evidence and examples of people ascribing blame to someone else. Point the finger (carefully!) and say it loud enough and perhaps you will escape taking ownership for your own actions!
But wait. Even Eve did the same thing! She saw her husband do it. “So why not me?” So she did it!
And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13 NKJV)
In some ways, a corporation cannot be blamed for the actions of a single person. Even though they hire people by the 1,000’s (over 100,000 a year in the corporation noted above), and even though they provide inbound and onboard training to every single person, it’s the individual that must take ownership of their own biases, feelings, actions, and reactions.
Until everyone owns up to their own selves, we will live in an arena of people blaming others even though their own personal actions and reactions, feelings and biases should equally be called into question.
We are a product of generations and thousands of years of development!
But we are also a product of our creation and the idea of trying to make it through the trials and tragedy whole. If the First Man and Woman can immediately place blame, then it is something we come by naturally. Straying away from the dictates and lessons that are given to us by our Maker, we will always find ourselves being as guilty of the crime that we attempt to pass blame on someone else!
We will never fix all the woes and wrongs in a single moment of time, nor by a single action. It will take generations for things to improve. Even when we recognize the sin in our heart, and though God can wipe away the guilt of our wrongdoing, it still takes a lot of personal accountability and responsibility and time to change who we are.
I like the image of that pointing finger…not cocked, mine you…but when you point one finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointed back at you… You are probably more guilty of whatever it is you point the blame to… Just saying. Let’s quit playing the Blame Game and start looking at ourselves for personal responsibility of what we say, think, and do! Only then can we help others see the potential errors of their ways. Perhaps we will create Utopia here on earth, but it is not an immediate place that can exist as long as we are individually different from each other, with personal biases and baggage that cannot easily be discarded.
But we can strive to make the world a better place! It’s called Personal Responsibility. It was the half-brother of Jesus who sums it up like this:
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:12-15 NKJV)
We are our own worst enemy. We can blame whoever we want, but remember, there are three fingers pointing back at yourself as you try to ascribe blame elsewhere.