The blame game

There’s this story about a Sunday school teacher who asked his students, “Which is the first sin ever committed by man?”

Almost every student in the class raised his hand, shouting “Me, teacher … me, me! I know the answer!” The teacher pointed to one of the students and the kid replied, “Disobedience! Adam and Eve ate the fruit that God forbade them to eat.”

The teacher answered, “Nope.”

All the kids were stumped. All of them were pretty sure that that was the right answer. Then, the teacher called on one kid who didn’t raise his hand. He said, “Alex, you didn’t raise your hand. Do you have any idea what the first sin ever was?”

Alex just scratched his head and answered sheepishly, “I’m not sure, teacher, but I think it has something to do with the reason why they ate the fruit in the first place — to be as knowledgeable and powerful as God.” 

The teacher smiled and said, “That’s right. You’re correct Alex. That is the first sin — and it’s called the sin of pride. It’s the inordinate desire to look at only oneself.” 

The teacher then paused and asked, “So, what’s the second sin ever committed?”

The students looked at each other, wondering what the second sin was. The teacher then said, “Well, it has something to do with the first. It’s called making excuses and blaming others for your own faults.” The teacher then went on to say that when God confronted Adam and Eve about their eating of the forbidden fruit, both of them said, “Hey, it’s not my fault,” and then pointed at each other. The teacher said that this “blame game” is a product of the sin of pride, whereby you basically declare yourself innocent to the world by blaming others.

It was a nice story. It was an eye-opener. I initially thought that the second sin was “frolicking in the garden naked.” But then I realized Adam and Eve only became aware that they were nude after they ate the apple. They didn’t really mean to be “stripped,” so I guess it doesn’t count. But the story has a good point, don’t you think? It made me realize something. Right now, this “blame game” that’s been going on every day in the world has actually been going on since the beginning of time. And, it’s this blame game that got us out of the Garden of Eden — and into this mess that we’re in.

Idon’t know if this blame game amuses or annoys me. I guess it depends on the circumstances. Whenever I’m watching a basketball game, I get amused when players do their standard “Whaaat? Me? Foul? I didn’t touch him!” look. Any time a player gets called for a foul, he always claims he wasn’t the guilty party and that it was someone else who fouled the guy, even if slo-mo replays show he was the only one guarding the fouled party. PBA star Robert Jaworski was pretty good at that. And it was good entertainment. He always had this “Hey, don’t look at me” routine.

But sometimes, this blame game annoys me. Particularly when it’s played in the Senate. The Senate is the home court of the blame game. It wasn’t invented there, but it’s there where they play the game at the highest level. This the pro league, man. Whenever there’s a new issue, the Senate always calls for what they like to term “investigative hearings.” It’s actually just a more professional term for “blame game.” When the Senate says, “Okay, let’s begin,” all hell breaks loose. All you see are pointing fingers, e.g. this witness accusing this politician of corruption, or this nutcase blaming this abusive government official, or this senator blaming another senator for delaying. It just goes on and on. Sometimes it’s actually entertaining. But when you think about the fact that these guys are actually playing the blame game at our expense, you can’t help but be a bit peeved. You sometimes wonder if it’s all for show.

Recently, when I was in Manila, I was in a restaurant in Rockwell having a meeting. Seated at the next table was this very controversial “star witness” who became a huge celebrity last year as he spilled the beans on some supposed scam in one of the key departments of the government. He created quite a stir then as he sobbed and wept on TV about the threats against his life — and how he was appalled by the “greed” that was going on in government. During his testimony, there was a lot of shouting, bashing, and blaming. He even toured different campuses. Some people even called him “a hero.” He decried the fact that his life was in danger. But when I saw him in that restaurant, he looked fine to me. He was meeting with a couple of people, and it seemed like they were talking about ordinary business matters. Everything seemed normal. Now, I’m not saying this guy is a fake. In fact, I think a lot of the things he said are true. And I’m sure, at some point, his life was really in danger. I’m not questioning the veracity of his claims. But when I saw him, I had to scratch my head and ask, “So, what was that all about?” It seemed like the controversy was a distant memory. And you have to wonder, was all that hullabaloo worth it? What did it actually achieve? Maybe it opened people’s eyes. I don’t know. But in the end, it seemed like nothing really happened. In the end, it was just one big, entertaining show. And we had to pay for it.

At the office, I get really annoyed whenever my subordinates play the blame game. As a boss, I don’t like it when my people screw up, especially when it costs the company money. But what makes it worse is when people who screw up blame someone else – or blame the circumstances. It’s one thing to make a mistake. But it’s another thing to blame everything or everyone for your failure. At the end of the day what matters is whether or not the job was done. If it wasn’t done, there’s no excuse. The reason the job wasn’t done was because you didn’t make it happen. End of story.

These days there’s a lot of blaming going on. People are blaming just about everyone. I don’t really blame them (pardon the pun). These are tough times. In the US, a lot of people are losing their jobs, and people are angry. People are blaming ex-President George W. Bush. They’re blaming Wall Street. They’re blaming the investment banks (and their greedy CEOs) that invested in sub-prime mortgages. They’re blaming Bernie Madoff. They’re blaming Governor Rod Blagojevich. They’re blaming Michael Phelps. Pretty soon they’ll be blaming Obama. It’s just a matter of time. People need someone to blame. Many people are in a quandary, and the tendency is to blame someone — anyone. I guess the reason for this is that people are already hurt by their current situation so they don’t want to make it worse by putting the blame on themselves. It just makes them feel worse.

But sometimes, the best step in addressing a problem is acknowledging your contribution to the problem at hand. We sometimes have too much pride to acknowledge that. That’s our first “sin.” We have trouble admitting that somehow, we had something to do with our current state. All we hear is, “I got laid off, and the government is not providing me with any help.” Or, “I got laid off, and it’s my boss’ fault.” We don’t hear lines like, “Darn, if only I had worked harder at developing another skill, maybe I could have more options than just looking for a job in my current field.” Or, “I wish I spent more time on harnessing my other talents instead of improving the look of my Facebook page.” 

In these challenging times we really only have two options: either we play the blame game or we acknowledge that we are part of the problem. In the first option, we know we can never achieve anything. The second option is a tough pill to swallow. No one enjoys admitting mistakes. But here’s the good news: If we are part of the problem, that means we can also be part of the solution. So there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Personally, I think the second option is better. 

What do you think?

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Thanks for your letters, folks! You may e-mail me at rodhnepo@yahoo.com.