The bludgeon of personal responsibility

               For two and a half years I was forced by the state that I live in to participate in mandatory alcohol counseling once a week.  At the end of this expensive and monotonous journey I was required to answer the question of what I had learned through forced therapy.  I answered truthfully, as follows:

• ·         All the circumstances in your life are your responsibility. 
• ·         All systems of authority and authority figures are legitimate.
• ·         It is your responsibility to endure any mistakes made by authority figures or systems of authority.  The reasoning being that if your choices had not brought you in contact with the system you wouldn’t be as subject to its mistakes.  Therefore, the mistakes of the system are your fault.    
• ·         You have no recourse against authority so you must except it.  Not accepting it is a choice you make and therefore the punishments you must endure for not accepting the systems rules are your responsibility.
• ·         All systems of authority are in place to benefit all of society and that is what they do.  Not accepting this as a fact is just another way of dodging personal responsibility.
• ·         Punishments imposed by authority/system must be viewed as for your and society’s benefit.
• ·         Punishments can only be avoided if you are wealthy, famous or both.  If you point this out you are avoiding personal responsibility.
• ·         If you are identified as avoiding personal responsibility you will be punished further. 
• ·         You are only being personally responsible if you acknowledge that all the circumstance in your life are your responsibility.
• ·         This continuously circular logic was put in place to help you take personal responsibility.

My answer was not well received and if I had not served the maximum amount of time in forced therapy I would have been required to continue with said therapy.  The maximum amount of time in forced therapy is set by a dollar amount.  The law states that the for-profit therapy centers that provide this “service” in place of the government agencies can only make you pay up to a certain dollar amount.  It is completely coincidental, I was informed, that my reaching this dollar amount coincided with my completion of treatment. 

This idea of so-called personal responsibility has long been the mantra of the oppressive.  It is as oxymoronic as any mantra found in Orwell’s 1984.  The underlying philosophical assumption is this, your failure to submit to authority is completely responsible for all your failures or shortcomings, if you submit completely to authority by taking personal responsibility you will succeed in all your endeavors, if you fail just remember, your failure to submit to authority is completely responsible for all your failures and shortcomings. 

This is a brilliant tactic employed by those in power to remain in power because it absolves them of any responsibility whatsoever.  It has been employed most successfully by organized religion.  It should come as no surprise that this perverted system is at the foundation of state mandated treatment programs since all of them are just Alcoholics Anonymous lite.

Alcoholics Anonymous is a Christian religious organization that just took the Christian logo, i.e., the cross, off the cover of the organization.  While still adhering to most fundamental dogma of religious institutions.  We can play a little game to show this is easily applied in the context of religious dogma.

·         All the circumstances in your life are your responsibility. 

o   You were born with free will so everything you do is your choice.  Extenuating circumstance, such as you not choosing to be born, be damned.

·         All systems of authority and authority figures are legitimate.

o   God is all powerful and all-knowing and infallible.  Just like any Republican candidate.

o   Anyone who is in a position of authority was chosen by God and God knows best.

·         It is your responsibility to endure any mistakes made by authority figures or systems of authority.  The reasoning being that if your choices had not brought you in contact with the system you wouldn’t be as subject to its mistakes.  Therefore, the mistakes of the system are your fault.   

o   The flaws in creation are only flaws because you are not doing what God wants. 

·         You have no recourse against authority so you must except it.  Not accepting it is a choice you make and therefore the punishments you must endure for not accepting the systems rules are your responsibility.

o   God is God and you’re not so quit your bitching and die painfully as is his great plan which you just are too stupid or wrongheaded to understand.

·         All systems of authority are in place to benefit all of society and that is what they do.  Not accepting this as a fact is just another way of dodging personal responsibility.

o   God is doing all of this for your own good.  God would be completely fine if you never existed but he took it upon himself to allow you to exist.  So, no matter how ridiculous that existence is shut the fuck up and endure it, because it is for the best in some to-be-determined long run.

·         Punishments imposed by authority/system must be viewed as for your and society’s benefit.

o   God has everyone’s best interest at heart, even terrorist, because he loves us all so much.  So, if your life sucks it’s because God wants you to learn some shit and change your ways.

·         Punishments can only be avoided if you are wealthy, famous or both.  If you point this out you are avoiding personal responsibility.

o   God has his favorites.  They know who they are and you’re not it.

·         If you are identified as avoiding personal responsibility you will be punished further.

o   If you continue to not accept that all things that happen are God’s good will then you will be forced by God to endure more bad shit.  The choice is of course up to you except that God is in complete control.

·         You are only being personally responsible if you acknowledge that all the circumstance in your life are your responsibility.

o   Once you accept that you are the cause of all things bad and God must punish you for this, because really, what else does he have to do, then you will be able to better endure your lashes. By the grace of God, of course.  This continuously circular logic was put in place to help you take personal responsibility.  Thank God, it’s required!

This idea of using the concept of personal responsibility as a state sanctioned self-flagellation device to keep the public in line is not limited to mandated so-called treatment programs.  It is most notably used in the political arena whenever a politician or political group is advocating for removing access to goods/services from the public and turning them over to the corporate for-profit sector. 

The personal responsibility mantra of these politicians is condensed for repeated commercial consumption and it sounds like this: “If you can’t afford said goods or services that’s your fault.  Americans (insert flag waving background here) have a responsibility to turn a profit at all costs and if you can’t live with that then just go fucking die already.”  The true root of this mentality isn’t even about monetary profit/the economy.  It’s about power.  Restricting access to health care, education, information, food, water, and living facilities are all effective ways for those who have the power to remain in power while restricting access to power from everyone else.  If they can get you to spend your whole life in constant terror of losing what little you think you have then you will never organize so that everyone can have more.    

It’s funny to me how they continue to pull this trick off.  They use anecdotes about this individual or that individual who at one time, supposedly, ripped off a system in which all people had access to necessary goods and services.  They then say that no one can have access if they don’t pay or everyone rips off the system and it collapses.  I say if the system is that easy to collapse then it is a flawed system and should be replaced.  The other side of the same coin.  They parade around a lifestyle of the rich and powerful and tell you that if you are careful not to upset the system you could one day be one of those people.  That is complete bullshit, yet they again use a narrative that all of those who have money and power now, at one time didn’t, so that means you have a chance of getting it too.  Just don’t rock the boat.  Take personal responsibility for not having money and power and someday you just might.  That is complete bullshit.

This truth this they shouldn’t have such concentrated access to that much wealth or power.  No one should.  It should be in the hands of the people, with many checks and balances in place to assure that it does not fall into the hands of the few.  The truth is that systems that concentrate wealth and power also collapse.  They always have, always will.  The problem being that when that system collapses it comes at the cost of the lives and welfare of millions. 

The few Haves know that if even a third of the Have-Nots would organize together their power would wane until it was inconsequential.  To smash such efforts of organization the Haves use the bludgeon of personal responsibility.  Personal responsibility is a fucking myth.  We didn’t get here of our own devices and we don’t exist or flourish on our own.  The closest example modern society has to the effects of real personal responsibility is solitary confinement.  Anyone who has seen solitary confinement, as I have, or experienced it, know that it not only destroys the physical body but also the soul and mind of anyone subjected to it. 

Humans were not made to exist or thrive on their own.  No matter what fairy tales you believe, even Adam was going crazy in the paradise of the Garden of Eden until he was given some human company. 

Do we make mistakes? Yes, of course we do, but we don’t make them as isolated individuals devoid of context or extenuating circumstances.  We make them together and as a result the solutions do not come from us just accepting personal responsibility.  The solutions are rooted in the group effort that occurs when we realize that we do not exist and cannot exist or act alone.  When come together all the problems of life will not go away but we will find that they are not compounded the way they currently are with this personal responsibility bludgeon. 

So, my “therapist” asked if I was not forced by the state to take “personal responsibility” for my so-called alcohol addition/problem, which in America is defined by Prohibition era standards of abstinence only, how would I have gotten “help?”  I responded that there are several other ways to deal with this, and many other issues, that are empathy building as opposed to isolation intensifying.  Examples include models such as Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs in which, instead of being forced once a week to watch bad propaganda videos from the 1980’s with a bunch of strangers who I never see again while drinking reheated bad coffee, I would actually sit down with the members of my community who I interact with and discuss with them the effects my drinking has on their and my life from their prospective.  I could also share my thoughts and feelings with them.  This is much more effective because I see and interact with these people daily and will continue to do so. 

This type of program increases empathy and tends to move away from extremely harsh and Kafkaesque punishments and penalties.  It also increases the accountability for all parties who are effected.

The “therapist” wanted to know if this is so effective why isn’t it being implemented?  That was the easiest question to answer.  Because this sort of a program is not conducive to turning a profit.  It requires all the participants to be volunteers and the mediator is paid for by the state. 

The bludgeon of personal responsibility, however, is extremely easy to leverage for a profit.  The individual is forced by the state to accept the state’s definition of rehabilitation and then must do so on the state’s terms.  Which are paying fines, paying for “treatment”, paying for classes, paying for the “opportunity” to do community service, paying for sobriety monitoring, paying for assessments, etc.  These services have been lobbied for at the local and national level by companies that then step in to provide the “service” in place of the state.  These corporations are then invested in keeping individuals in the system for their profit, which they hide under the guise of “safety of the community.”

               Let me ask you this, does anyone really believe that any community becomes safer as more and more of its individuals feel more internally focused, isolated, stressed, and trapped?  The answer is no.  But it does turn a profit!  So all you have-Lesses keep swinging that bludgeon of personal responsibility into your own skull and do as you’re told, because that’s your responsibility!