Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 06, 2025, 08:43 PMWe blame the buffoons, but the real problem be us, and what we collectively do and think.  Joe six pack and his half-rack brain.

I've never been a fan of blaming the collective "us".  "We" are to blame, because we put the idiots in positions of power.  We are to blame for climate change, because we all drive carz and forget to turn off the lights when we leave the room.  Wars are our fault because we go out on the battlefield and shoot people we don't know or fly drones with a joystick and bomb people half a world away.  The debt is our fault because we spend more than we earn.  And so forth and so on.  Blaming everyone is blaming no one.  In this respect, blame isn't a useful concept to define the situation.

As a social creature, homo sap isn't very smart.  Like the rate determining step in a chemical reaction, society is only as smart as it's stupidest people.  In a Democracy, stupid always wins because the stupid always have the most voters.  Can you blame people for being stupid?  Whether they were just born stupid or poorly educated, is the fact they ended up stupid really their fault?  Looking at the extreme case, do you blame a retard for being retarded?

Perhaps rather than blaming, framing the issue in terms of RESPONSIBILITY is a better way to look at it?  "With great power comes great responsibility."  Conversely, with little or no power comes little or no responsibility.  From this POV, I am not responsible at all for the shit show ongoing in the world.  The Donald and Elon can be held responsible for a lot of it though.  By holding them responsible, they can be made to answer for their crimes.  Accountability is essential.  The question is, with no power, how do we hold them accountable?

RE