What happened to responsibility?

It occurred to me yesterday (not for the first time) that personal responsibility has been defenestrated. Though it's no surprise, since blaming others has been a byproduct of sin ("She gave me the apple!") starting roughly at the time God created the world.

A recent Thugs, Inc. poll shows that taking responsibility for one's actions has dropped drastically in the last 30 years, down to 41% today, versus nearly 70% in 1977.

Seriously, this is no surprise. Besides being human nature, the slowly-heading-towards-socialist government has encouraged it with things like welfare, business subsidization and other such nonsense. Free money + human laziness = great human laziness.

Yesterday, I was playing with Thug Jr, and holding onto his shirt. He started to pull away and his shirt began to rip. He said, "Daddy, you made me rip my shirt!". This following a string of "you made me......" and "he made me...." that I've been noticing all week long. So, I sat Thug Jr and Mini Thug and said to them, "Repeat after me: 'I am responsible for my own actions.'" Hopefully laying the foundation early will give them a shield against the world's take on the subject. Mini Thug was quite amusing in his repetition: "I am sponsible for my own accidents." LOL! An interesting way of putting it!

There are still people in authority who appreciate taking responsibility. When the subject comes up, I often tell of an occurrence when I was working for Papa John's.

I had worked (so far) an 8 hour day, and had just found out that the closing manager was sick, so I would have to make it a 14+ hour day. I decided after the dinner rush that I would go across the street and have a beer and relax a bit. On the clock. In my uniform. Oops!

When the GM heard about it the next day, he told me, in the nicest possible voice, "WHAT THE **** WERE YOU THINKING?" After his tirade, he paused to give me a chance to say something. I simply said, "You're right. I was totally wrong. I apologize, and it won't happen again." He stood there stunned that I hadn't argued or made excuses. The next day I got promoted.

How do you win buddies and influence others? Repeat after me: "I am responsible for my own actions."

G'day!