Personal responsibility is one of the most fundamental principles of representative democracy.  It is characterized by the general belief that in the vast majority of situations, a person is responsible for their own decisions and, as such, must reap their own rewards and consequences.  Personal responsibility is the foundation of accountability and justice.

In modern America, accepting the blame when something goes wrong has become a strikingly costly proposition.  In business, situations which once might have been resolved with an apology and reparation are now routinely brought to the government for administrative or legal processing.  In the product liability context, almost any defect with a product — including defective users — can be cause for a class action lawsuit.  Companies which once used discriminatory employment practices continue to face the threat of lawsuits if any of their employees end up discovering that discrimination had once taken place.  Given that most companies are not in the business of creating dangerous products or intentionally discriminating against employees, most of these lawsuits are the result of accidents, oversights, or individuals acting against the company’s best interests.

The result for business is a perverse incentive to bury or disguise known faults in the hope that nobody will discover the problems beneath the surface.  The logic even for companies that get caught is disturbingly simple: Admit guilt now and be sued right away or deny guilt now and be sued later.  In the meantime, people get hurt and all of society pays the price.  Whistleblower laws, which seek to make it harder to shirk responsibility, do little to fix the broken incentive system because they are all stick with no carrot.  Worse still for believers in small government, whistleblower laws are a big government correction (more law) to a big government problem (lawsuits).

On the other side of the coin, individuals are just as eager to pass off responsibility as companies are to shirk it.  Nowhere is this better seen than in the criminal context where rapists and murderers try to pass off their crimes as the long term consequences of childhood abuse or other unfortunate things from their past.  Then there are the people suing the tobacco industry over their marketing of “Light” cigarettes because such cigarettes were not as healthy as they thought they were, apparently missing the fact that any health issues were entirely their own fault for smoking in the first place.  Presenting people who have made harmful decisions as victims does little except detract from justice and breed contempt from people who go through life without any reward for their attempt to live an upstanding life.

For conservatives, the road to promoting personal responsibility is bound to be long and hard.  Despite the cost, conservatives must stand up and practice what we preach.  We must be more upstanding, more forthright, and more honest than those who go through life shirking or shifting responsibility.  We must hold our own feet to the fire.  But at the same time, we must avoid the trap of acting as though we are better than those who do not hold our values.  It is our own fault if we act like jerks.

A nation where people admit their mistakes is a nation where reconciliation is possible.  Nobody comes out of court happy with the opposing party, while apologies can often be the first step on the road toward friendship and trust.  Companionship, not hostility, is the fabric from which a free and peaceful society is woven.

Tags: First Principles