The Blame Game

People looooove to play the “blame game.”  I see it all the time. Whether on a public forum (like social media), or in peoples more personal lives, people feel useful pointing the finger at who or what they believe is the source of a problem. People do it with regard to national/world politics, workplace operations, household affairs, and basically all social groups. It’s a great way to create the illusion of productivity while at the same time relieve some angst.

Unfortunately it does neither of these things. Simply pointing out the cause of a problem very rarely leads to a solution, and any angst relief is very temporary. In fact, it usually just magnifies the angst quickly since the solution has not been found; we are just fueling our own fire.

The MAIN reason why we play the blame game though, is because we believe that it alleviates us from any responsibility toward finding/being the solution to a problem. “They broke it, so it’s their responsibility to fix it”.  This is both a lazy approach to problem resolution, and a waste of time and mental energy. The truth is: When a problem occurs, it is the responsibility of all parties involved to find/be the solution.

It is OUR responsibility to fix the problems in the world today. Simply whining about it on social media and pointing the finger isn’t getting us anywhere.

For both our global and private problems, we have to stop saying:

“Somebody has to stop this.”

“They better take care of this.”

Instead, we should be asking ourselves:

“What am I doing that could be causing or adding to this problem?”

“What can I do to resolve the problem?”

Or at the very least:

“What changes can I make, to do my part in the resolution?”

We should always be pointing the finger inward for solutions, never outward for blame. This is a more productive and less stressful use of our mental energy.