If this belief from
heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s
holy plan,
Have I not reason to
lament
What man has made of
man?
-From
Lines Written in Early Spring
by
William Wordsworth
If I were to ask you to define personal accountability, I think I
would likely hear something to the effect of, “how a person holds oneself
accountable.” This definition does nothing to actually define the
concept. Perhaps a person would take it a step further and say, “It's
when a person takes ownership or responsibility for one's own actions.”
This definition goes a lot further to explain a concept, but still does
little to recognize how personal accountability really exists in the more
abstract sense of the word, in people's daily lives, myself included. It
is a difficult concept to really grasp if we are being honest, much in the same
way words like justice and freedom exist in the abstract. So, where do we
begin to take personal responsibility within our own lives?
When I watch or read the news, I am always amazed at how much blame
is placed on others. It seems no matter what the topic or circumstances,
our egocentric nature always finds a way to portray ourselves as the victim.
President Trump did it all the way through his first term and into the current election. So did Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and a fair portion of
other individuals with political aspirations, including Joe Biden. Why? Because that is how
you win elections and keep your name in the news. You shift blame for
problems to other groups of people, and you yell to anyone who will listen,
“Look there, that person is to blame for your trouble,” and then you make vague
claims about how you can fix the problems others have created.
Historically speaking, every dictator in history gained and kept power
through the calculated use of fear; with fear best being accomplished when a
name or face is put to it. Further, the longer a lie is told, the more it
begins to sound like truth, and actually identifying real issues becomes harder
and harder to see.
Our founding fathers had a clear problem and direction when they
made the decision to revolt against the crown and start a new nation based on
simple concepts of independence and self-sufficiency. What's more, in the
organization of this new country, those in power still knew what personal
accountability was, and showed it through their actions. Following the
victories of the revolution, and in the wake of establishing a new government,
George Washington was offered the title of King. As we know from our
early history lessons, he obviously turned the position down, and became our
first President, which even that he did reluctantly. Can you imagine such
a man or woman? Show me a competent leader who is called to services with
the selfless intention to truly serve, and they will have my vote and support
wholeheartedly. I don’t know that such a person
exists, and it saddens me to think of what our founding fathers might say if
they could see us now.
Christopher Isherwood wrote about being “drowned
by the loud angry voices of the government, contradicting through its thousand
mouths,” and I have to admit, I feel this way now. I feel like this
county is being drowned by the angry voices of both government and citizens
alike, ever contradicting themselves without clear direction of where we as a
people need to point. (Note that the Isherwood line was published in 1945
in a book called Berlin Stories, about Germany under the Third Reich.)
Perhaps that most frightening part of this whole
thing, isn’t that we have leadership consumed with self-advancement through the
continued use of fear and the shifting of blame, but rather that we have all
allowed this to happen without even noticing the path we are on. We are
directionless, lost in the wilderness of fear without a moral compass to guide
us. Which way is North? As far as the current state of our
government and citizenship is concerned, ask ten different people and watch
them point ten different directions.
I do not pretend to have any great answer to our
problems, but I will place blame on the group of people we should all fear:
Ourselves. It isn’t the fault of President Trump, and it's not the Fault
of President Obama. Law enforcement is not to blame, nor are the groups
speaking out against them. It's not liberals, and it's not conservatives,
or independents for that matter.
We are all to blame.
Can we as a nation please take a collective deep breath, and
refocus on what it is that is important for the future of America? Can we
as a people recognize that it is our own fault that we are in the current state
we are, take some personal responsibility, and get back to the business of
finding true north? I don’t know that we can, or if it is realistically
even possible. And so, with so much doubt about the direction of this
nation, have we not reason to lament, what man has made of man?
