Henry Turberfield, '26
Everything is your fault.
We all know that one person that just won’t admit fault. Anything that happens will not be a result of this person's actions. According to Guy Winch, a physiologist, people refuse to admit fault as a defense mechanism, because they have “incredibly fragile egos.” He says if these people turtle up, they won’t suffer as many consequences or imperfections (IMC.com). This is very common in schools. Students will blame everyone and anything instead of admitting they’re wrong. Since school is a place of intellect, students who struggle thriving may feel dumb, leading to complete defensiveness. But what if everyone could admit fault without feeling imperfect or dumb?
I have a philosophy that everything is your fault. I came up with this philosophy in Mrs. Towle’s class in freshman year English. We were discussing inner and outer environments, and it was explained that people’s actions around me would be reflective of my outer environment, since I couldn’t control other people’s actions. I thought I could, however, since my own actions would affect other people's actions. By using your own actions, it is possible you can control another person’s actions entirely.
One’s actions influence a lot. Teachers, employers, world leaders, etc. are able to control crowds of people easily in an environment that they created. And if these people are always at fault for the people under them, why can’t we hold everyone to the same standard? We could totally eliminate those people that just deflect everything. But this can go deeper than just defensive babies.
With our expansion of technology, who knows when time travel will be possible or the extension of human life. You could be spending your life contributing to the invention of either, but you don’t…at least not yet. Since you don’t, you aren’t able to go back in time and stop something horrible from happening. But if you did, would you do it? Being physically in the moment with knowledge from a more advanced time is one thing, but it would be up to the will of the person.
Let's say there is a scenario where you have a button capable of stopping the worst event to ever happen in human history. If you don’t press the button, are you, in a sense, culpable? While some may think this may be entirely too far-fetched, it ultimately ties back to the mindset being discussed. Stop blaming everything and everyone else for what happens.