Where is Personal Responsibility?

By now, pretty much everyone who gets national news in one form or another has heard about the Louisiana State University student who died after a drinking binge that was part of a fraternity initiation. Something that has probably not reached the national scene is that one of the students who survived the willful alcohol poisoning and spent time in intensive care for it, is now suing the bar where the drinking occurred, the fraternity that sponsored the event, and the student's school, Louisiana State University. Apparently, 21 year old Donald Hunt feels it is these organizations that are responsible for his nearly drinking himself to death.

As I was watching this news at the gym, a middle aged man turned to me and said "sheesh, used to be I only had myself to blame when I got drunk and something bad happened." It is patently absurd and somewhat offensive that not only does Hunt expect to be relieved of personal responsibility for what happened, but apparently expects to receive a tidy financial settlement for his "troubles." Should LSU choose to cough up some money to avoid a costly legal battle, the taxpayers will be subsidizing fraternity pledges whose behavior the public is somehow responsible for. We live in a time where nobody wants to take the blame. Adult children blame their parents for perceived childhood wrongs as the root of their problems, and some less than ethical therapists and physicians take royal sums for helping their patients do so. Smokers sue tobacco companies for not explicitly telling them something that common sense should have delivered with clarity: inhaling the byproducts of combustion is not a particularly smart idea. Instead, society at large targets sinister tobacco companies for selling us things that we buy.

We turn to government to protect us from ourselves. We look to the legal system to hand us the winning lotto number of big settlements for our own stupidity. Our legal system is drowning in frivolous lawsuits. We pay higher insurance premiums, taxes and retail prices as everyone braces himself to sue or get sued. Blame someone else for your ills--and make them pay. Instead of suffering the consequences of our mistakes, we hire contingency lawyers and let the politicos showboat our swapping personal freedom for the safe hands of the all-knowing mother state. We give tacit approval to v-chips and allow lawmakers to flirt with the notion of stricter control of the Internet (protect our children from smut, please, since I don't have the time). Big Brother doesn't sneak in, or crush us with an iron fist. We invite him in, all in the name of safety.

I predict that this litigious mood will shift, and soon. More and more Americans, seeing the true costs of our entitlement based society, are finally figuring out that there is a cost to our victim mindset, and a substantial one at that. The myth of "deep pockets" of big business is more truth than fantasy, however. They keep those pockets deep by charging us more for their legal losses. It is unlikely that Mr. Hunt will be successful in his challenge to all those evil forces that aligned against him. In addition to his obvious willingness to be a part of fraternity shenanigans, Hunt has accrued a number of citations for drinking related crimes and a few DWIs as well. A good defendant's lawyer should be able to make quick work of this nuisance case and Hunt will soon leave the spotlight our culture shines on professional victims.

Hosted by: The Melendez Organization

Edward Melendez More rants.
Home.