Creative Blame has become tremendously à la mode these days. The basic idea is that no matter how irresponsible one has been it is always possible and even appropriate to blame someone else for the ways in which one now suffers. From overeating to child care to utterly despicable behavior towards others, Creative Blame has increasingly become the norm.
Given how much human beings in the United States are given to Creative Blame it is becoming difficult to see how anyone supposes that she or he has free will. Why? Because free will invariably entails that one is at fault when one fails to do that what is manifestly reasonable and, as a result, one suffers or causes others to suffer.
Here is an unusual example in this regard. Everyone knows that the word “nigger” is a common occurrence in rap music. And most rap artist count on white people to buy their music. So please to tell me how a white person can be racist in saying the word “nigger” while singing along with a rap song? Indeed, quite often the song is not about a white person calling a black person “nigger” but a black person calling a black person “nigger”. Yet, many black people insist that the white person is morally to blame for saying the word “nigger” while singing along. If it is all right for a white person to enjoy the song, then I cannot begin to fathom why it is wrong to say the word “nigger” while singing along.
Here is a quite different example. It is increasingly the case that parents less and less time with their children. So I do not think that it is all unusual for children nowadays to “act out”. After all, there is not a piece of technology on the face of this earth that can take the place of parental love: the touches of affirmation; the smile of admiration; and the looks of appreciation. But rather than parents blaming themselves for the fact that their children now act-out because they receive so little direct parent-to-child contact, it is now the case that just about every child born these days has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
People walk down the street texting and blame others for not seeing them texting and giving them the right away.
People regularly eat at McDonald’s and order the super-size menu and then blame McDonald’s for the fact that they are now fat.
In college, people do not read the syllabus and then blame the professor for not informing them of their responsibilities for the course.
People spend way more money than they have; and it is the fault of companies for advertising their products in enticing ways.
I could go on but, of course, you get the point. The mantra of contemporary American society is quite simple: Someone else is always at fault for something undesirable that happens to me, no matter how irresponsibly I behave. That is none other than Creative Blame.
At the very heart of the idea of Creative Blame is none other than a deep, deep form of self-deception. For we cannot both value free will and, the very same time, so readily embrace the idea of Creative Blame. That is rather like wanting to be both short and tall or hot and cold at the very same time. Not an option.
There is no better indication of the demise of a society than the extent to which self-deception prevails in an increasing global manner in that society. The practice of being irresponsible and blaming others has increasingly become the norm in American society. And make no mistake about it: That is a most ominous sign.
© 2011 Laurence Thomas
