We Have To Blame Someone

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For whatever reason we are a “blame” society. Good, bad or ugly we have to affix blame to someone.

Thankfully there is no shortage of soft targets. Big corporations, pharmaceutical companies, the President, Congress, the NRA, unions, politicians, the media, Supreme Court, police, and the justice system have all participated in the “blame game” for many years.

Who Deserves Blame?

While many people feel the list above is very worthy of blame there are other instances where blame is not always justified.

Let’s look a little closer at blame. We have an issue first, such as high unemployment or the stock market, and then we have to access blame to those we think are using their power to affect those issues.

Presidents usually get the credit or blame for the economy. In reality, presidents have little to no effect on things like the stock market, or unemployment or even job growth.

If unemployment comes down, then all presidents, regardless of party, take to the podium to pontificate about how well their policies are working. If unemployment numbers go up then it’s the fault of businesses not hiring.

Our problem as citizens is we most often target the low-hanging fruit for our ills rather than assessing the actual issue and how to make it better.

We often point the blame finger in the wrong direction. In many cases the finger should be pointed at ourselves.

We perpetuate many of our societal problems ourselves. Our very lives shift daily because of news reports predicting doom and gloom. Gas goes up a nickel and we freak out.

We seem to place way too much importance on things that have very little effect on us.

Some Final Thoughts

Unfortunately we always seem to feel better when there is someone to blame. Maybe we feel that it takes the blame target off our own backs if we can attach it to someone else’s back.

When blame is determined that’s usually the end of it. XYZ is responsible for the lousy economy. Well now we have a scapegoat but how is that going to change anything?

Does the person to blame have any tools to erase the problem or to improve it? We don’t seem to care. As long as someone is held responsible that’s good enough for us.

We are way too busy finding the next person, place or thing to be vilified and the responsible parties exposed to our perceptions of social justice.

Our 24/7/365 sound bites waste no time in explaining to us who did what to shorten our blame timeline.