What happened to accountability?

I was in a weird headspace the other day and just flipping through channels on my TV. I stopped on CSPAN because some Congressional members were inquiring of this prominent head of a university as to the policies of the University on a particular subject. The reason and or impetus behind these inquires is irrelevant here. No, what struck me was each Congressional member had an allotted amount of time to question this individual. They would ask a question, often one requiring a simple yes or no answer. And the University head would just start talking about something else. The Congressional member would become annoyed and try and steer the head back to the question at hand. The University head would then say they were trying to answer the question and then go right back to whatever they wanted to talk about. Around and around they went until the allotted time was up. Very frustrating to watch, say nothing for being involved in the discussion.

What I learned was, if you don’t want to answer a question, don’t lie, just keep talking about something else till time runs out and they move on. No accountability because you have nothing to be nailed down upon. I would think the University took a stance on something, good or bad, and they should stand by that decision and give reasons why they made that decision. The Congressional members could disagree with that stance but respect the rights of the University to make it if it was legal. Instead, they just deflected till I guess the Congressional committee just moves on. So, the University does not have to be accountable for any decisions they make? What is the point of a Congressional hearing then if you can just deflect the whole time and then nothing happens to you? What message does that send to the rest of us, the citizens of the U.S.? Certain groups aren’t accountable for their actions?

The entire Covid experience was a clear indicator how woefully unprepared the world was for an epidemic. Not just for an outbreak of disease but how to properly handle people during such an occurrence. In the U.S., this is the purpose of the CDC (the Center for Disease Control). Yet, policies were implemented that had no scientific backing, people were vilified if they questioned anything, people lost jobs or whole livelihoods, and countless other problems that really made things much worse than they probably had to be if we had better planning. Yet not one person has been held accountable for anything. Sure, they questioned Fauci and a few others, but things went just like I stated above. If your job was to prepare for such an occurrence and you failed and people died, you get to keep doing your job? Not in the regular working world. If I don’t deliver on my job, I get let go. If I am a surgeon and I make mistakes that lead to people’s deaths, I should lose my job. That is a good thing. And good intentions have nothing to do with it. You are responsible for the results. That is what accountability is. The government is accountable to the people. Or at least it is supposed to be.

Recently, the U.S. Government has forgiven almost $144 billion in student loan debt, helping some 4 million people get out from under their debt. The stated reason for forgiving this debt was students must go to college to get ahead in life and were unaware of the consequences of the loans they signed up for. Essentially the argument is they had no choice but to sign up to go to college to get a degree so they can have a job. However, not everyone had their debt lifted and many, many people paid the full amount of the debt and then had their tax dollars used to pay off someone else’s debt. Again, despite what it “felt” like, you do not have to go to college to get a job. In fact, the trades are begging for people to come work in them. The problem was students don’t want those jobs. The ones they want require college (generally). As to the not knowing how the loan works, that is a terrible excuse. Oh, I didn’t know is not sufficient for everyone else who bothered to educate themselves or found a way to pay off their debt.

There are currently 2.2 million people being held in the U.S. criminal justice system. Of these, nearly 75% are at or below the poverty line. A strong correlation has been shown between poverty and the willingness to commit crime. At the same time, 500,000 of those people are being held for drug offenses, most being possession charges. Again, the consensus is people are poor, so they are turning to drugs or crime (or both) to survive their situation. Essentially it is not their fault. They have no choice. Therefore, we should not hold them accountable.

The percentage of 1st time marriages that end in divorce is around 42%. That number climbs to 63% in 2nd marriages and to 73% in 3rd marriages. Pretty sure that most weddings involve some sort of statement of commitment (till death do us part for example). If you are getting divorced 2x or more, what does that say for your word as far as your commitment to another. What about those of us attending the wedding? Can we really take you at your word that you will honor and cherish this person, through sickness and in health? Should your potential spouse take you at your word? Or, again, what about us attendees? Should we really believe you?

Obviously, there is a universal theme permeating throughout these topics and that is people making decisions that led to no accountability for the results. Instead, “reasons” were given as to why a person does not need to be held accountable for the results. Repeatedly. In completely different parts of life too. We seem to be borderline obsessed with not holding people accountable for their decisions. No repercussions. What kind of society does that create? Or we are selective in beholding people to certain repercussions but only in select areas. For example, if I choose to not pay the IRS because my life sucks right now, they are still going to come after me. If I say the wrong thing to the wrong people, massive repercussions. If I question things, like I am doing here, massive repercussions from disagreeing folks. Attack of the Karens! Are these areas more important to be accountable in then the others stated above?

I say all of this because what message does this send to young adults coming into our society. Are we teaching them to be honorable? Does a person’s word matter anymore? Are we teaching them to ponder their decisions and stand by them? Are they willing and able to defend those decisions and live with the consequences? What about them as future leaders? If all they ever see is their present leaders never held accountable for their decisions, what are they learning? How will they lead in the future?  The old adage was the captain is responsible for everything on their ship. The consequences fall on their shoulders, regardless of whether it was their fault or not. It comes with the job. This responsibility kept them vigilant and engaged if they wanted to be successful. But if we remove the accountability (and its repercussions), do you really think people will still do the right thing? Guess we are going to find out.