A recent television commercial features business persons in a meeting discussing their competition's market advantage. One person makes the suggestion they take turns blaming others as he turns to the person across the table and says, "I'd like to start by blaming (name of person)." Intended as humor, this scenario is deeply serious! Sadly, the blame game affects us all.
In our country and others, what we believe often becomes the definition of who we are. Once we've adopted a belief system, we must defend that system because we must defend ourselves. When our beliefs are challenged, we retaliate. Some times we attack the beliefs of others and sometimes we blame our perceived adversaries for the fruit of our own mistakes.
As old as time, this unethical behavior began with the first man in the Book of Genesis. He blamed the woman; the woman blamed the serpent. The fear of being wrong and the pride hidden in our hearts results in regular episodes of the blame game.
From corporate managements to political leaders, news reporters and sometimes you and me, the name of the game has become blame. The Book of First John, chapter 1, verse 8: "If we say we have no sin (wrong), we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Ethical behavior will always cause us to "fess up" when we are in the wrong, not just when we are caught and exposed!
Perhaps our society has come to think that it's alright to be a "little" unethical if it can be justified by the end. In other words, a little blame is permissible if it enables us to achieve a good end. I once heard this on-point analogy: Walking into a convenience store to buy a bottle of water, we begin to read the labels. One bottle says 100% pure spring water. Another says 99.5% pure spring water and .5% sewage. Which one would you buy?
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