Blaming is the most medieval thing

And we still do it today

A few months ago, during a class, one of our teachers proposed as discussion: given a specific situation, with several participants, and an outcome, we would rank the level of culpability of each one.

Right now, the situation itself isn’t very important. The point is: after that class, I could not stop thinking about it. I didn’t knew why, but unconsciously I knew something was not right: it was like my subconscious already knew the answer, but refused to tell me, forcing me to get there on my own.

Society today is leaning more towards an acceptance mindset, in which we try to decipher others’ actions by putting ourselves in their shoes and seeing through their eyes. And sometimes, when others do something wrong or bad, even to us, we are able to do something wonderful called forgiving, because we are able to understand that their actions were perhaps caused by circumstances out of their control. And so we don’t blame them.

But I always knew this, at least as long as I could remember, so what changed in that class? I was seeking an answer, but I didn’t knew the question? It was really messing with me, and I would think about it, trying to decipher this riddle, many times a day.

Until, one day, I figured it out. It was a sunny day, one of the first this year. I’m not sure if the weather had anything to do with the answer I came up, but the truth is I always liked the warm weather most. Perhaps it helped.

Anyway, the point is: I could finally see why it bothered me so much. It’s one of those things that we accept it’s true when we learn it, because we learn it from such an young age, and we never hear anybody question that truth.

Can anybody be blamed? This was the question. If our choices are based on our life experiences, and our life experiences build up ever since we are born, we can’t be blamed for anything. Punishment shouldn’t be part of our society anymore.

We are all born the same, with an empty mind. The place, the family, the environment in which somebody is born seals our fate. We have free will, but that free will will be the consequence of our decisions, and our decisions are not random, even though sometimes they might seem so. They have a reason, a story, a justification.

So whenever someone makes a mistake, commits a crime, they are being victims themselves, victims of a past that ultimately, they didn’t choose. The very same person that can be declared guilty of a murder, could be the President of the US, or the inventor of a new vaccine. Our actions are shaped by our experiences, and our experiences are shaped by other people’s actions, and other peoples’ actions are shaped by their experiences, and so on.

So, the conclusion here is that blame and guilt are nonsense; they are completely outdated concepts, product of many inferior cultures who cultivated such ideas over centuries as an easy response to life’s problems.

Obviously bad things happen, and it is important to know who is responsible, not to blame them nor to punish, but to IMPROVE and make sure it won’t happen again.

Some people are unfortunate because they have experienced negative actions from others in their past, but we as a society shouldn’t punish them any further, thus aggravating their situation; we, those who were fortunate enough to go through enough positive experiences that made them capable to withstand any further negative ones life puts in our way, should help fix and reverse the bad experiences these people have experienced, by countering them with new and good ones.

Conclusion

Blaming is bad because it leads people to punishment. Responsibility is good because it leads people to improvement over mistakes.

This post is my personal opinion. As of now, it is the version I believe is the most adequate and truthful to my vision of the world. But if any research or advancement of any kind proves that I am wrong, I am more than happy to reformulate my way of thinking.