Comments on: What Ever Happened to Personal Responsibility: A Rant

By: Bedste Højskole

Bedste Højskole — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:23:05 +0000

Thank you for posting this. Gave me something to think about !

By: Carl Braun

Carl Braun — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:57:32 +0000

Excellent . . . well said. Several years ago, in one of my philosophical moments, I had a tee shirt made up with the inscription “Personal Responsibility . . . Get some!”. I was surprised how many people that asked me what that meant. Thanks for verbalizing my thoughts.

By: Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You [podcast + transcript + poll]

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You [podcast + transcript + poll] — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:32:37 +0000

[...] References: What Ever Happened to Personal Responsibility: A Rant [...]

By: Sabrina

Sabrina — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:13:33 +0000

As a mother and a grandmother, I think you analogy regarding th 8 year old without a jacket is a flawed one. Blaming a CHILD for something the father should’ve know better? How much you wanna bet that if that had been the mother, everyone would’ve blamed the mother with no problem? Seems to me that conservatives are very convenient about where theyplace blame. They blame the victims, they blame those who may really and truly not be culpable…but when it comes to the “big dogs” the power mongers and just the straight up meanspirited, there’s a wellspring of excuses out there that are given out to people. How many politicians make excuses for their extramarital affairs? Far too many. Did Rush Limbaught vocally take personal responsibility when he had his drug issue? Does Sarah Palin EVER take personal responsibility for anything…such as the fact while she’s out there stumping and preaching abstinence her daughter goes out and gets pregnant? Yes, it is partially her fault because Palin is always touting “family values” and abstinence but is she even home being a REAL mother? Think about some of those things before you judge others!

By: matthew

matthew — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:27:40 +0000

Responding to number 10: Even being responsible and careful doesn’t give us a right to having everything work out correctly for us.

Part of being careful and responsible is considering the future and putting aside for that rainy day. And there are days when the rain is beyond what our rainy day fund can survive, or when it is the fund itself that is rained upon.

None of these circumstances gives us the right to blame anybody besides ourselves for what has occurred. And if we can’t blame ourselves, there may just be nobody to blame, reasonably.

The problem with the blame game, no matter how qualified, is that there is no way to get back what was lost through placing the blame anywhere besides ourselves justly. Only we can pull ourselves back up, and therefore only ourselves can be responsible.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:56:28 +0000

Im glad that there are others that still know how to think, and i like that we share the same opinion.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:06:21 +0000

As a pro-active parent of 3 teenage children for whom I am constantly presented with teaching opportunities regarding personal responsibility and the reality of consequences- both positive and negative for our actions, I appreciate where you’re coming from with this rant on many levels but I also take that protective responsibility very seriously and still make choices as a parent in the best interest of my children based on age-related experience that they may not always agree with but respect because they understand that I am the parent and they are the child- and so have their best interests in mind with every such action or lack of it; and while I talk to them like fellow intelligent human beings rather than screaming at or belittling them for their mistakes, acknowledge that respect is a two way street and must be earned and appreciate that as they grow we can often laugh and have fun together, they know that if by their actions they put me in a position of having to choose between being their parent and and being their friend, it is no contest- friendship is a great fringe benefit but it is not my job and I will be the parent every time. Thus I have to agree with Peter on this one point – I do not believe in treating children as miniature adults any more than I believe in treating young adults the same way I would a pre-teen child. I can honestly say that as an adult, though I have not always made the best choices, thanks to my own parents’ training and example, I at least accepted the consequences of my actions and learned from my mistakes. Thus I have no regrets from my youth. My point is that there is an appropriate time be take the protective obligations of parenthood seriously and an equally appropriate time to start letting go and rejoicing in a child’s individualism and independence by – it is good to let children make choices that will affect them so they can eventually learn to make good decisions and function as responsible adults, but it is a process and choices should start with simpler things- we do not ask a three year old: what do you want to wear today? but: you can choose between the blue outfit and the red one- or, what do you want for lunch? but instead: you can have a cheese sandwich or a peanut butter sandwich/ do you want an apple or a banana for your snack- which will it be today? etc…open ended choices overwhelm young children who are not cognitively equipped yet to handle them appropriately; nor do they have the ability to comprehend the consequences of those choices- eg. 8 yrs old is not an appropriate age to let a child decide not to wear a coat outside in the winter because a child that young has no real concept of cause and effects for things like pneumonia regardless of repeated warnings about such things. Some choices must be made for a young child by the adult who is ultimately responsible for that child’s well being whether the child agrees with the adult or not- the primary reason for parental authority is to ensure those things and for one’s children until the child can legitimately do so themselves and failing to do so constitutes neglect on the part of the parent. On the other hand when a child can decide and do for himself he should be given the opportunity. On the one hand if my 13 year old, however uncharacteristically, mouths off at school and is assigned a 1000 word essay on how to speak respectfully to her elders -I back the teacher up and let her figure it out rather than write it for her, but I also carefully monitor her wardrobe and do not let her shop at the mall unsupervised with other teenage girls; if my 15 year old chooses not to eat after school even though he’s hungry because I am not right there to make him a sandwich at the time and he is too lazy to make it himself- then he can go hungry until supper time and it won’t bother me a bit- but to let a 5 year old go hungry for the same reasons would constitute neglect- or if that same 15 year old chooses to stay up all night past the household bedtime, he still has to go to school in the morning no matter how tired he is and if he falls asleep in class and gets in trouble for it, I will likewise back the teacher and let him face the consequence she deems reasonable for such behavior at school as well as rescinding appropriate privileges at home (such as non-academic use of his computer) until he has earned them back by trust so he is less tempted to chat all night with other insomniac teenagers and after I’ve gone to bed and he is no longer under immediate supervision; but if his 11 year old sister is up all night because her allergies are making her sick and uncomfortable, then she should be cared for the next day by being allowed extra time to rest and a scheduled visit to the doctor to address the problem later in the day so that her absence is excused and she gets help with the work she missed that day if needed; or if my 17 year old has used up his pre-paid cell phone minutes and can’t afford to refill them himself, or chose not to work enough hours to cover his insurance because he wanted to go out with his friends instead spending all of his own money in the process, I will not front him the money for those things or let him use the car and endanger the rest of us by liability- but let him live without those privileges until he can remedy his cash-flow problem on his own by learning to manage his money and work within an appropriate budget. Anyway, there’s my own rant- hopefully, you get the point.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:01:32 +0000

I’m glad to see their are still some people in this world who have sense.

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:38:55 +0000

It’s a good point, but your illustration misses something else that has changed in society.

60 years ago nobody would have said “Well done. He taught her a valuable lesson.” They would have said, “What the heck kind of parent lets an 8-year-old decide how she wants to be dressed to leave the house??”

Choices have consequences, but positions of power come with responsibilities to others under our care as well.

By: Poker Blog

Poker Blog — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:23:01 +0000

Thanks for the post. I certainly need to take some of this article personally.