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Re: responsibility vs. blame » Dinah

Posted by Larry Hoover on June 8, 2003, at 9:50:47

In reply to Re: But if I do bad things, aren't I bad?, posted by Dinah on June 7, 2003, at 11:39:22

> And if I'm responsible for making myself better, aren't I to blame if I don't?
>
> I still don't understand. Can you use baby words?

I don't know about baby words, but I'll take another crack at it.

Taking responsibility involves attributions of all outcomes, good, neutral, bad. Blame focusses only on the bad. (I don't like judgmental words like good or bad. They taint observations.)

Responsibility involves anticipation as well as retrospection. Blame only looks back.

Responsibility assumes that all decisions have effects. Blame is a tool to distort responsibility, magnifying responsibility in some cases, and minimizing it in others.

I keep thinking about that case a few years back where a woman successfully sued McDonald's because she was injured when she spilled a hot coffee in her lap. IMHO, the woman was responsible (she made a number of decisions which led directly to the incident, alternative ones preventing the adverse outcome), but McDonald's got blamed.

Lar

 

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