Scout Schultz and Our Current Society

[Dill]

(09-26-2017, 12:53 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: I am more concerned we are becoming a society where people are no longer being held responsible for their own actions because there's a convenient scapegoat that everyone can blame.

I saw some article online recently by the Enquirer about following the heroin epidemic for one week and how many people OD'd and died and such and the comments over the part where they mentioned how many people were arrested were things like... "Must be nice to have the privilege of not having your family torn apart over an addiction they have no control over." ... making it both a racial thing, and a not-their-fault thing. My first thought was "They chose to use the drug, didn't they? That was the control they had over the addiction." because I am fairly certain that outside of some crazy exceptions, people who choose to not do heroin, don't get addicted to heroin. I know I have never used heroin, and surprisingly enough don't have a heroin addiction. That was my control over it.

Yet that responsibility for their own actions has gone away, because now everyone is a victim, and there is always someone else to blame for it.

The parents of this person who is a KNOWN suicide risk and mental health crisis, what is their reaction when their child writes three suicide notes, calls the police on themselves telling them they have a gun, and then walks at the police who respond with a knife while screaming "shoot me"? Oh, it's not their child's fault ("child", the person was 21) and it's certainly not THEIR fault for failing to get their known suicidal child the help they needed.

No, of course not. It is somehow the police officer's fault for responding to a call that someone had a gun and a knife, responding, and when faced with a person with a knife (and potentially a gun, according to the call) choosing to shoot a person who's coming at them with a knife despite multiple attempts to get them to stop.

Take some freaking personal responsibility for your actions, or in the case of the parents inactions, people. If you love someone and they have mental health problems, get them some help, don't ignore the problem and then blame other people when they flip out. Don't just riot, break, and burn things in response to their bad choices and your failings to act.

Well I agree with you that it is important for people to assume responsibility for their actions. But in conflicts between people, even police and criminals, there might be situations in which both parties do not take responsibility and claim victimhood.

I am never surprised if parents expect police to exhaust every possibility before shooting their (21-year-old) child. If someone is screaming "shoot me," then I think that removes some ambiguity from the situation.