DON'T BLAME MOTHER NATURE

It has been affirmed [again] that we are not responsible for our own behavior. Most of us are aware of the recent incident in NYC of the man who was stabbed as he stepped in to help a woman who was being robbed. He fell onto the sidewalk and as he lay there dying from his injury, it is on video surveillance that at least 25 people walked past him, stepped over him, or ignored him. One man rolled him over a bit, at which time he most likely noticed the blood oozing from a wound, and then walked away. Another man used his cell phone to take a photo of the dying man. We have similar instances around the country in the past few years.

What is wrong with us? It seems that according to some psychologists [and other educated excuse-makers] that we are “Hard-Wired” to behave this way. You know, the “Crowd Mentality”, or “By-Stander Effect” that causes us to do what others do in a given situation. Most of us growing up [if you are over the age of 35] were asked, usually by an authority figure, when “the crowd” did something, “if they jumped off a cliff, would you do that too?” If only I had the information then that I have now to say, “of course, Dad I can’t help it, I’m hard-wired to follow the crowd.” If you are over the age of 35, you may have had what I had growing up, something called consequences. It wasn’t a matter of giving in to your “tendencies.”

A psychologist on NBC this morning stated that the reason people step over a dying man on the street, or I suppose, take a photo of him, is because: “We are motivated to fit into our social environment – we want to do what others do” so we mimic the behavior of others. He also stated that “the assumption is made that someone else is doing something to help.” We are basically not responsible for doing nothing, if we see others doing nothing. This means we are accountable for nothing, for not doing something. Got it? We aren’t responsible for anything anymore.
Nope. No accountability. We are told we cheat on our spouses because we are sex addicts; we overeat because we have a “fat gene”; we can’t control our impulses because we are ADD or ADHD and we accept this because we are full of C-R-A-P. You don’t even have to actually win anymore to get a trophy. Hey, I will hug a tree before the sun sets today, but I also believe in accountability.

What if these apathetic people were held accountable? Let’s say for criminal negligence? By definition; criminal negligence is one of 3 general classes of mens rea – Latin for “guilty mind”.

We no doubt have some wonderful stories of heroism that have been witnessed, but the questions I would ask are:

Are we virtually helpless creatures of our primal instincts? I think not.

Do we allow others to determine our behavior to choose apathy over compassion? No way.

How could a human being leave another in the street to die? I have no idea