Never thought I'd see the day when so many in our nation would abandon personal accountability--a fundamental framework for everything we represent as honorable human beings.
Yet we live in a society where citizens who once held traits such as integrity, strength of character and respect for truth in highest regard are turning their backs on this crucial ideal in favor of saving face and intellectual dishonesty.
Evidence of the shameful abandonment is everywhere. You likely see it as clearly as I do. It's become so much easier now, even acceptable among many even at the highest levels, to blame others for our own oversights, mistakes and failures.
And the damage this scourge inflicts on our spirits (and everything else having to do with our relationships) is incalculable.
I know I've certainly been guilty of conveniently blaming others over the years when I've fallen short. "I would have done it, but so and so forgot to remind me."
"I'm sorry to have missed helping you as promised but the car broke down and my cell phone died."
A reporter in Phoenix once told me that, as a college student, he'd told his English professor with a straight face he missed a homework deadline because his dog ate it. And how many parents today fault teachers for their own child's failures and misbehavior?
I've heard abusive types use the preposterous excuse, "she made me hurt her," as if they lacked control over their own thoughts and actions. Accusing others of being responsible for one's own negative behavior has become all too common. Our prisons hold thousands who used such lame excuses to shirk accountability.
According to University of Mississippi Medical Center Professor Emeritus Marcia Rachel, quoted in Forbes, the definitions of accountability vary, but involve several fundamental concepts.
To be accountable, we must have an obligation to fulfill, a responsibility or goal. Then we need the willingness to take action in that direction because we want, rather than have, to. There also should be intent behind our action and willingness to take sole ownership (or responsibility) for our behavior and the outcome, whether good or bad, she explains.
There comes a time after we live long enough when it becomes easy to recognize those we know with a pattern of consistently faulting others for their own shortcomings, oversights and inadequacies. The price they pay for not accepting individual responsibility is the loss of others' respect and trust.
By becoming more accountable to ourselves in our personal lives and careers, we can find far greater success for us and those working with us. Accountability is an energizing force throughout any organization. Where a culture of accountability exists, people will do what they say they'll do.
Besides alienating ourselves from those who must rely on our honesty, it behooves us to examine what failing to be accountable for our actions and inactions does to us.
What consequence does the proclivity for always faulting other people and circumstances for our shortcomings have on our spirits? What does it cost us in time, money and beneficial life experiences? I believe the price for dodging accountability can be infinitely higher in the long run.
Several years back as an editor, I expected a reporter to submit his story by deadline so other employees could prepare it for publication. Instead, he submitted his work 40 minutes late with a lame excuse that another person was at fault. This hadn't been the first time.
At that point I had a choice. Do I again ignore (after multiple lapses) his lack of responsibility, or confront his problem and hold myself accountable to my own responsibilities since his failures affected our product?
At that point, I'd have to blame myself for knowing how unreliable he'd proven himself to be while continuing to keep him on staff. I gave him two weeks to find another job and stuck to my guns.
One only need look at the litany of ridiculous lawsuits filed against businesses over the years because someone failed to accept accountability for the hot coffee they spilled on themselves, or the obese person suing a food manufacturer for their condition, or suing gun manufacturers for the actions of those who purchase those products.
Dodging responsibility certainly is nothing new. Look at Washington, D.C., today. Joe Trovato, writing in the University of Wisconsin's Badger Herald 13 years ago, said, "America's biggest problem today is the lack of personal responsibility. If there is one value that has eroded away in America, it is its belief in this one. America has become a sue-happy society where people are not accountable for their actions.
"We continually blame everything but ourselves for our problems. This is a disturbing trend for Americans whose nation was originally founded on ideals of rugged individualism."
Sadly, that noble phrase might be replaced 230 years later with a lapse into "dishonest shirking."
Now go out and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 01/12/2020