A while back (2003), there were certain fat folk who sued McDonald’s, alleging in part that the latter’s deceptive advertising and processing of its food resulted in the obesity of its customers. The suit was criticized by many as the product of plaintiffs who could not exercise personal responsibility over their own choices.
Why might a consumer blame McDonald’s instead of himself? I think this phenomenon is the flip side of the coin of something more disturbing in our culture: the need to get someone’s approval for everything we do. For example, if you apply for a job, you’ve got to get the approval of the hiring officer. To buy something on credit, a lender must approve of your credit standing. To rent an aparment, the landlord must approve of your rental history.
Perhaps long ago the default state of things was, “you are allowed to do it unless someone objects.” But these days, it’s the reverse: you can’t do it unless someone approves. Why the change? Probably because government & big business have become more pervasive as our society matured. Each passing year witnessed yet more laws / regulations / business practices that, incrementally, resulted in a lot of constraints.
So what’s the connection to personal responsibility? In short, we can’t demand much personal responsibility from someone who isn’t allowed to exercise independent choices. Consider a close-to-home example: If a parent tells tells his child what to do at every step, the parent implies that the child cannot responsibly make his own decisions. Any failings of the child are rightfully blamed on the parent.
Until people have more personal freedom, they will continue to shirk personal responsibility.
____________________Written by Lucius
I sort of see it as gettin to this point in a another way. I think there has been a slow decline in people’s idea of integrity as the possibilities of luxury are increased. For example, if you can find anyone who lived through the Great Depression, or even someone from a generation removed from that (barring Baby Boomers) and you talk to them, they have a very strong sense of personal responsibility, patriotism, and how a person should act (not just manners, but how a human being should relate to others). I think that we got to this point less by being restricted in choice, but by choosing selfish motives because people had never faced true hardship. So many people have never known what it is like to be without money, without food, without a car, a phone, a tv, fast food and restaurants, and surely dozens more of little conveniences that are so commonplace today. People now don’t have to “grow up”. I think people wind up shirking personal responsibility because they know that to take responsibility for anything could require the loss of some luxury that they either possess or desire. So, in the case of McDonald’s suing people – I would say that it was more a petty attempt to gain more luxury, and renounce more responsibility, than an action that was somehow encourage and fostered by the restrictions that people are place under. I think the restriction are in place more because of the abandonment of personal standards and responsibility and I, for one, am glad they’re there because it may make things harder for me, but that also means that they I saw picking his nose in his car the other day is going to have to get through the same red tape I am before he can access something that could give him the power to screw me (or McDonald’s) over. *If there are any typos then let’s just pretend they don’t exist.*
Comment by Bassgravi — September 21, 2006 @ 9:00 am
*Just for the record, I saw all my typos after I posted. This is what happen when you don’t proof-read, folks.
Comment by Bassgravi — September 21, 2006 @ 9:04 am