I recently wrote about blame in an essay contest: ...

2010-06-18T04:57:33.501+01:00

I recently wrote about blame in an essay contest: There are many ways in which blame can be averted. First, you can claim that whatever harm was caused, it was an accident that occurred randomly. If it couldn’t have been random you can argue that it was unintentional and unplanned. You can claim that you did not know that what you did would have those consequences or that you were somehow incapable of knowing. You can actually argue that you thought it would have very positive consequences rather than negative ones and it was hard to predict otherwise. If you did know the consequences you could argue that you were unable to prevent it or had no other choice or at least really did not desire it to happen. You can argue that you chose the lesser of two evils and if you had done something else, something worse would have happened. In the end, you could say what happened would have happened anyway, even if you hadn’t done what you did.

You can make a case that it is the fault of “the system” and you shouldn’t be singled out. An argument can be made that the harmful consequence was the result of a chain of events to which you or your organization may have contributed only little, and even that is ambiguous. All others responsible in that chain of events can probably claim the same thing and so ultimate responsibility will be diluted and no one takes the blame. Everybody agrees that “we are all to blame” but in fact no one is really held accountable…

My experience has been that religious people have ...

2010-05-11T04:29:09.076+01:00

My experience has been that religious people have a tendency to hold all their beliefs, religious, political, whatever. And there's a tendency for them to live in a black and white world.

It's a strange world.

Comments on Epiphenom: Who's to blame for the financial crisis?

I recently wrote about blame in an essay contest: ...

My experience has been that religious people have ...