May 07 2007
What Happened To Personal Responsibility?
I was just checking the Chicago Tribune website and saw that several retailers have pulled the Magnetix toy from their shelves. A little background:
Over the last couple of days the Tribune has had a series of articles about these magnetic toys. Long story short, some 5 year old swallowed the magnets, they jammed up his insides, and he died. A sad story, I admit. However, here is what’s pissing me off: Do the articles blame the idiots who let a little kid play with tiny objects? No. They blame the big-bad goverment and the big-bad company for not warning us about how evil and dangerous and deadly and horrible magnets can be. If only there was a big warning sticker on the box, then little “Jimmy” would be alive today! Oh, the humanity!
Give me a break.
Frankly, if you are a parent and don’t know that (a) kids like picking up things, (b) kids like putting things in their mouths, and (c) kids can die from putting small things in their mouths, then you don’t deserve to be a parent. What kind of brainpower does it require to know that you don’t give a kid something they could swallow? Remember, we’re talking about a toy here. Something the parent buys and gives to their child. We’re not talking about the accidential things that happen.
This sort of thing just drives me up a wall. We seem to live in a world where any sort of personal responsibility has been tossed out the window. Here’s the simple fact: you fucked up, and you have to live with it. What is so hard to understand? Why do we, as a society, feel the need to blame everyone but yourself?
4 Responses to “What Happened To Personal Responsibility?”
Damn right…absolutely right. People feel so much better blaming others but in reality it is their own doing and they have to deal with outcome. In this case their “lack of” common sense. You’re an adult and as such, you’ll have to behave like one and take the responsibility. Don’t except a child to know any better and don’t go blaming others.
Honestly, the last thing we need is more useless “warning” labels. Do people think that someone stupid enough to give plastic bags to a baby is going to take the time to read warning labels? Come on. It’s just protection against lawyers.
I did learn more about the dangers of those little magnets (how they can get stuck and not pass through the system)–that was useful.
But what riled me the most about the article was the whole tone. Instead of sticking with the theme of educating people about a risk (though a tiny one), they bang the drum of “goverment protect me!”
It’s that shoddy “get everyone worried about things that probably will not happen” journalism that I am getting more and more sick of.
I read the Sunday article and was appalled — by the parents. It was a flashback to December 1980 for me — I clearly remember going into Mom and Dad’s room and telling them that I had the worst stomach ache of my life. This little boy did the same thing — and the parents did nothing but tell him to go back to sleep! He had all the symptoms of diverticulitis (which is what this magnet-induced thing was, though not mentioned in the paper). My version was caused by biological defect, but I am lucky enough to have parents who took me to a hospital and saved my life, and not a pair of morons who said “they hoped God took him quickly.” That made me quite irate.
I don’t know about any of that. But check this out, this is the kind of stuff you like. Plus you have a lot of time on your hands.
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/index.php