Why the American Blame Game?

[Clint]

Considering there are people from other counties here in the Garden, I have a question.

Are we unique here in America in that every time there is a tragedy, we start looking for someone to blame?

It is beginning to make me angry. People are in distress and others are trying to help. Only a very few sick minded people aren’t doing everything they can, yet people begin the blame game. Why can’t we at least wait until the initial response has passed?

Dealing with a disaster is extremely stressful. Why must those responding have the additional stress of being blamed for not doing enough, soon enough, while they are in the midst of it all?

It has been said that an Auditor is someone who comes in after the battle and shoots the survivers. We don't even wait for the audit.

[abbey]

Unfortunately its human nature Clint, most of us feel the need to lay the blame at someones door in tragic circumstances.

We did it in Britain when the suicide/homicide bombings took place, blaming the police and government.

And no doubt most of the world looked in on Katrina's aftermath and blamed GWB, for not doing more sooner.

When we see someone suffering we need to blame someone so why not go to the top?

[Bez]

Clint wrote: Considering there are people from other counties here in the Garden, I have a question.



Are we unique here in America in that every time there is a tragedy, we start looking for someone to blame?



It is beginning to make me angry. People are in distress and others are trying to help. Only a very few sick minded people aren’t doing everything they can, yet people begin the blame game. Why can’t we at least wait until the initial response has passed?



Dealing with a disaster is extremely stressful. Why must those responding have the additional stress of being blamed for not doing enough, soon enough, while they are in the midst of it all?



It has been said that an Auditor is someone who comes in after the battle and shoots the survivers. We don't even wait for the audit.


I totally agree.....every event be it a natural disaster or man managed is prone to some kind of chaos factor, specially the natural disasters. You can't 100% plan for this. We should spend more time focussing what we can do better next time....all these blame sessions are non-value activities...a complete waste of time. Actions not talk is what is needed. Positive discussions after the event not finger pointing is what is needed.



I have been listening to the radio this morning....the discussion was about giving donations for aid for the victims of Katrina.....several people phoned in saying the richest country in the world should look after their own. Blaming Bush for spending money on iraq etc etc. THIS MAKES ME SO MAD. We are not talking about the US goverment here but thosands of people who have lost family members, homes and jobs. Whatever happened to humanity ?

To answer your question....you are NOT unique in the states for looking for someone to blame...it happens here all the time. It was Tony Blairs fault for the London bombings....It is Tony Blairs fault that our sports people don't do well...it is the schools fault that children turn into yobs.

Didn't mean to turn this post into a RANT session....sorry:-5

[PurpleChicken]

Seems to be human nature everywhere - not just the US. Think it's a product of our litigious society... as soon as you trip over something, there has to be someone to blame for not fixing it up. So even with a natural disaster we seemingly have to blame someone.

What ever happened to 'sh*t happens'!! Less blaming, more action is what's needed if you ask me. Way too much hot air being wasted!!

[abbey]

THIS is why the government gets the blame.





6 September 2005

'YEAH MOMMA, SOMEBODY'S COMING TO GET YOU'

A LOUISIANA official wept as he described on national television how an elderly woman who pleaded for help for days drowned in a nursing home despite repeated assurances that help was coming.

Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said the death of the woman illustrates woeful shortcomings in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.







TEARS: Broussard sobs as he tells of death
"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, 'Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?'," Broussard said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"And he said, 'Yeah, Momma, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday' and she drowned Friday night."



Broussard said the aftermath of the hurricane "will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in US history".



He has called for a Congressional investigation into why help did not reach the Gulf Coast sooner. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now," he said.



He added he was disillusioned with government promises "the cavalry's coming". "The cavalry's still not here," he said, "but I've begun to hear the hoofs and we're a week out." He also accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of blocking private relief efforts. "We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. Fema turned them back." He said Fema needs more support from President Bush. The agency was unavailable for comment...

[minks]

Humans like to control and when they can't control they blame. As well when you have lost absolutely everything what else in life is there left to do, blame someone or something and most likely out of desperation. I do not think it is a US specific thing, I think all humans do so.