What Happened to Personal Responsibility in the USA?
I was just sitting here reflecting on my experiences on the Internet.
Remembering when I was very active in creating niche websites. Then I thought of why I got rid of everything and was just DONE with it.
What brought this on is seeing a blog post where the person had added a disclaimer about not being a medical professional and they were only sharing their personal experience and opinions.
When I see that stuff, for a moment, it gives me a combination of sadness, anger and disgust.
Having been born & raised and lived my entire life in the USA up until just a few months ago... it makes me think what happened to the USA?
Where is this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave that I grew up believing in?
Where is the personal responsibility in the USA?
See... this is what I do not understand...
If I read a blog here or elsewhere... regardless of what the writer is saying or even if they openly encourage readers to apply their advice...
It is MY CHOICE.
Do you see what I mean?
If I decide to read your blog and I decide to do something that you said you do and I take the action to do it and I have a bad experience as a result...
HOW is that possibly YOUR fault?
It is mind boggling that in the USA things have become so backwards, so messed up, that this is even a consideration for it to be twisted into even potentially at any level being your fault!
Why is it any different than if I watched someone across the road doing something and tried it for myself? Again I made the choice to watch, I made the decision to try it, I took the action to do it.
Why is it different than if I was in a restaurant and I overheard some people talking about doing something in a certain way and I tried it for myself?
Nobody made me do any of that. It was all ME.
Well, the same goes for reading a post online!
I made the decision to read your blog. I followed through with the action of reading your blog. I made the decision to try something that you wrote about. Finally, I took the action and actually did it.
Anyway, I am just glad to see that in other countries the majority of people, and culture as a whole, still believe in personal responsibility.
Places that still have enough common sense that if a kid touches a hot stove burner and gets burned the parents do not blame the stove manufacturer.
Instead they tell their child the same thing my parents told me "It's your own fault! Pay attention to what you are doing!" and sometimes that was summed up as "Well, don't put your hand on a hot burner dummy!"
Places where if a person is walking down the road, and for some reason, walks across another person's lawn, trips on a rock and falls to the ground injuring themselves nobody blames the person who owns the lawn.
WHY? Because they were NOT the person who made the decision (or didn't pay attention) to walk across the lawn and then took the action of actually walking across it!
Anyway, I'm glad I am now living in Southeast Asia where this is very different.
It actually reminds me of living in the USA back in the 80s and 90s in some ways and I love it! =)