The Daily Globe: DIATRIBE

Daily Globe

X Add

& Menu

2 Ads

- E-mail

Menu: J World: Diatribe

A Diatribe is defined as "a bitter, sharply abusive denunciation, attack or criticism." That pretty much sums up me from time to time. I have very strong opinions about most things and tend to get passionately angry about certain things that bother me. This Diatribe is my attempt at catharsis. Every now and then, I'll rant about my opinions, beliefs and ideas on a different subject which happen to be bothering me at the time. I'll try to resist the critic's tendency to be entirely negative without offering any solutions, although often there aren't any easy answers. I feel confident that at least a few people will be offended by what I have to say because people seem to think my views tend toward the more extreme, or at least are outside the mainstream. Personally, I think of myself as a fairly balanced taoist and moderate realist and I rarely agree with everything said by either liberals, conservatives, or any other group. My diatribes are based solely on my opinions, and often those opinions are not as well informed as they could be because it's virtually impossible to be fully and completely informed about everything. Recognizing this, I am very open to adapting and changing my views based on new information or other's ideas. I am not rigidly steadfast in my opinions and instead am constantly altering and refining them and, importantly, I'm willing to admit I'm wrong when I am; qualities I strongly believe more people should adopt. Accordingly, I would love to have your thoughts, response, comments, disagreements, or whatever, to my diatribes. I will reprint the most interesting responses and comments I receive, along with the original monograph and my reply, if I feel it necessary, in the Diatribe Archive.

If you want some background on me you can start at my mini-biography. You can also gain some further insight into what I think of as good and bad at my list of faves. Enjoy.

The Death of the Accident

Last winter my 83-year old grandmother, while shopping, slipped on some ice and broke her hip. When I spoke to her on the phone several days later, I asked if she was going to sue the store since they had obviously failed to keep the storefront free from ice and thus created a hazard. It seemed an innocent question at the time. After all, working in the law, I see this sort of thing all the time. My grandmother simply said, "no, it was an accident."

That's when it hit me. Here is a clear division between the generations. We have effectively lost the concept of the accident in this society while older generations still remember when you could skin your knee and it was nobody's fault. Think about it. When was the last time somebody you know got hurt and didn't sue somebody or at least talk to a lawyer about suing somebody?

It's gotten to the point now where everything is somebody's fault. Look at the lady who scalded herself with McDonald's coffee. She bought the coffee, she had to know coffee is hot, and she put the hot coffee between her legs while driving! But it turns out it was McDonald's fault for serving the coffee too hot. Every time you see something ridiculous on a product, it's because somebody sued them over it. Shampoo has directions; and warnings like do not drink or avoid contact with eyes. Does anyone really need to be told this? And if they do, maybe society is better off if they were weeded out from the herd. I know that may seem harsh, but we're facing a major overpopulation problem and it seems to me we can afford to lose the ones that need instructions on how to wash their hair. All these lawsuits have made us an overprotective society. The message is clear; there are no accidents. We can't think for ourselves or take responsibility for our own actions and as a culture we expect the government, the church, and businesses to tell us what to do.

I find this frightening. If we allow these organizations to tell us how to act in a proactive way long enough (and I think it's already been too long) we'll lose our ability to think for ourselves. Every time we whine that we didn't know we shouldn't put our hand in the lawn mower while the blade is going, we lose more control over our lives. Governments react by making regulations regarding the manufacture of lawn mowers (to protect us from ourselves). Companies must spend millions on safety testing, instructions, and defending lawsuits which ultimately raises their price of doing business and the price of buying a lawnmower goes up. Innovative ideas and small start-up companies will never see the light of day because of all the regulations regarding consumer protections, testing, safety regulations, etc., which were ultimately caused by somebody who was too stupid not to realize putting his or her hand in a running lawn mower was a bad idea.

Product liability is another one I don't understand. Products are made or designed by humans. Humans are imperfect at best. So 1 million widgets are made and one goes bad. The company is held fully accountable for the one defective widget; they're held to a perfect standard, one none of us could ever hope to achieve; but they have to according to consumer laws. I realize there are examples of blatant disregard for other people that result in serious injury to another person, like the Ford Pinto. But those are either exceptions or deliberate, and therefore not accidents. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the occasional screw that doesn't get tightened properly, the defective one that got past quality control, a doctor accidently forgetting any little detail, etc. You've made mistakes at work; you must have. Mistakes are inevitable. We all make them. Do you want be sued for it every time you make a mistake? That's the direction we're heading in. The pressure of every act one takes being open to a lawsuit seems ridiculous but is closer to becoming a reality than most people realize. The number of doctors in this country has been steadily declining for years. One reason for this, I feel, is that doctors are under enormous pressure to never make a mistake despite the fact their humanity virtually guarantees mistakes will occur. Who wants to work under conditions such as those.

It used to be ignorance of the law was not a defense. Now it seems that it is a defense to using common sense. Almost nobody trips and falls these days and says, "whoops, my fault, it was an accident." Instead, they decide that the sidewalk should have been maintained in better condition or there should have been a sign warning them of the dangers of walking. It's completely out of hand. Watch where you're going! If you trip over yourself, don't look around for somebody to blame. Blame yourself for not being more careful. It was an accident, for chrissakes. An "accident" is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening, unintentionally caused and usually resulting in harm, injury, damage, or loss; any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause." Every single one of us, no exceptions, has or will be involved in some sort of accident at some time in their life and more likely many, many times over the course of a lifetime. If all of us took responsibility for our actions and admitted that more often than not no one was to blame, our courts might be freed up to do more meaningful work.

But more and more, people are blaming somebody else for their problems; it's the doctor's fault they're sick, it's the car mechanic's fault their car won't run, it's the lawyer's fault they're being sued, it's McDonald's fault they spilled coffee on themselves, it's sugar's fault they killed twelve with an Uzi, it's their parent's fault they're so messed up as an adult, it's the post office's fault they didn't pay their taxes on time, it's the grocery store's fault they tripped on the sidewalk, it's the city's fault they got beat up in a park, it's some minority (or majority's) fault they can't get a job, it's the teacher's fault they're uneducated or stupid, it's television's fault they're violent, it's religion's fault they feel guilty, it's their old girlfriend's fault they're incapable of love, it's heavy metal music that made their children commit suicide, it's comic books' fault that children are violent, it's freedom of religion's fault that people are no longer religious, it's pornography's fault that women are treated badly by society, it's immigrants' or women's fault that jobs are scarce, it's men's fault that the sexes are not equal, ad infinitum. It's always somebody else's fault. It's never my fault or your fault. And yet if everyone by virtue of being human must make a mistake, the law of averages dictates that something must be my fault and your fault at some time. Again, I'm not talking about blaming the victim for obvious intentional harm, I'm talking about acknowldgeing and recognizing situations where you or I caused our own harm by accident. Admit it, you'll feel better. Stop looking around when you fuck up. Look in a mirror first, instead.

And beyond that, there are times when something happens that is nobody's fault, when we can't even blame ourselves. "Shit happens," goes the recent adage, and at times it's absolutely true. There used to be another name for this; "act of god." But it applies to any natural occurence or any random event where there is no clear causation. Maybe your hair fell out simply because you're getting older. Of course, it's possible karma is catching up with you for torturing your sister or brother as a child. That possibility aside, it's more likely a random act with no blame whatsoever. So stop looking for someone to blame and get over it.

But modern society seems to need, even crave, a scapegoat. There must be someone at fault . . . other than the person it happened to. It's not enough for there to be fault, it must be somebody else who's at fault. That's one of my big problems with christianity and AA; they specifically teach people not to take responsibility for their lives, but to turn them over to some imagined higher power. It's no wonder people are so unwilling to do so in other situations. But we have to stop blaming one another and take responsibility for our own actions and recognize those situations where there is truly no fault. We have to resurrect the concept of the accident in our society before it's too late. If we don't, we're headed for armageddon because if people must blame everything on somebody else, starting with the little things and moving up, we can never construct a peaceful world. But it's not too late, yet. Just remember to look to yourself first before taking any action against another person.

Respond To This Diatribe:

I would love to have your thoughts, response, comments, disagreements, or whatever, to this month's Diatribe. I will reprint the most interesting responses and comments I receive, along with the original monograph and any reply I feel compelled to make, in the Diatribe Archive. Simply enter your thoughts below and click "Respond" when you're done. If the form below doesn't give you enough space to get your thoughts across, feel free to send more by e-mail.

Agree or Disagree?:
I Agree with You
I Disagree with You

Why:

Your name:

E-mail address:
(optional; I won't write back unless you want me to)

Best Responses To This Diatribe

Bob A. agreed, writing:

What you are seeing is the logical consequence of too many years of liberal legislation based on the premise that the Government should "take care of the citizens", presumably because the citizens are not competent to take care of themselves.

This is evidenceed by a continuing erosion of our constitutional rights and government interferrence in our daily lives. I have no objection to the government providing me with the rights and resources to better my life; I do object to being forced to live my life according to their rules (which they typically do not follow themselves).

The issue is exactly personal accountability. There should be no such thing as liability litigation. If damages have occurred as a result of someone's breaking the law, it should be a criminal case. Instead of punative damages there should be criminal punsihment. Assignment of compensatory damages should be part of the finding of criminal liability. And if no law has been broken, then JUST GET OVER IT!

Jonathan V. agreed, writing:

Quite obviously, our society caters to stupidity - just look at the most popular movies and TV shows (or simply the existence of sitcoms, for that matter). Since our government relies on the stupid to keep the entire conspiracy of fools in office under the guise of an absurd "two party" structure, it must spend a hell of a lot of money to keep them alive. You should check out an excellent analysis of the phenomenon in P.J. O'Rourke's A Parliament of Whores, under the chapter, "Protectors of a Blameless Citizenry."

Loren W. agreed, writing:

An additional thought -- Everything is the fault of some large company (or government, or whatever). Presumably the fault of someone that will pay us big bucks to reward us for being so totally stupid and incompetent.

But what is a company (or a government)? Yes, it is an institution. It is an institution staffed by people. It is staffed by the same people, that in the evening, are too stupid to turn off the lawnmower before they pick it up. They are the same people that can't realize that you will have an "accident" if you try to drive home from the store with The Club installed on your steering wheel. It is exactly these same people that are too stupid to not drink the shampoo if it doesn't have a warning label, that during the day work for these sompanies designing lawnmowers, shampoo, and theft protection devices. The same people that are supposed to be too stupid to use something right, are the same people that are designing it with 100% perfection to never fail. They are the same people that, during the day, must do everything right, or it will be their fault when someone gets indegestion from drinking the detergent to cure a hangover. And yet, if they drank the detergent themselves when they got home from work (or maybe even at work), it would be someone else's fault that they had done this stupid thing!

Jeff J. agreed, writing:

Stupidity and ignorance are not sufficient reasons to award the massive amounts of money some of these lawsuits get. The example McDonalds and some lawnmower lawsuits are the prime examples that I use myself. I do not appreciate having to pay more money for insurance or lawn products simply because some fool tried to trim his hedge with his lawnmower and lost some fingers in the process. I feel sorry that he was injured but it was his fault. Same goes for the lady with the coffee.

On the other hand, accidents like your grandmother's could have been prevented with a little additional effort. Covering the expenses of the accident should be sufficient. Loss of wages, medical cost, etc. is a reasonable coverage for accidents. Only in the case of deliberate design and/or action allowed for the accident should additional penalty be dispensed.

At least, that is what I believe.

An unknown writer agreed, saying:

Recently in our local paper it was reported that a family is suing a hot dog manufacturer because their 3 year old choked to death on a hot dog. The hot dog package wasn't labeled to caution against choking. What next? Should grapes be packaged complete with instructions and a list of possible hazards?

Even more Diatribes

Future Topics

The next diatribe topic will be "The National Pastime: Trying to Control Everybody's Life"

Future topics may include . . .

Speedbumps: Should the Inventor be Tortured?
The Suit Syndrome
Censorship: "It's For the Children" and Other Bad Ideas

G Top

Daily Globe

& Menu

2 Ads

] Links

[ J

- E-mail