Personal Responsibility

Hi guys :)

So I've been meaning to write about a lot of things since my last post but they can wait for now. I'm motivated to write about one thing in particular at the moment and that is the concept of personal responsibility. Sounds patronising I know, but some people are so ignorant I think they need patronising.

I've just read the following article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16225748

To summarise: a student was hit by a bus after a night out at a bar at Sheffield Uni. The bar in question had a drinks promotion on that night. The uni have now cancelled all drinks promotions at bars across the campus to investigate.

FOR GOODNESS' SAKE.

Cancelling drinks promotions across one university because one person was stupid enough to get wasted and then hit by a bus is NOT GOING TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.

Firstly, I'm sorry to sound controversial and blunt - it is a tragedy and the person in question has suffered serious injuries. I feel very sorry for her, her family and anyone else affected.

BUT...

There are a few issues here that I'd like to address that are nationwide problems.

Firstly, the reliance on binge-drinking as an integral part of our culture and the assumption that that is the only way to have a good time. I personally find it pathetic that we have to rely on poisoning our bodies and chemically altering our brains to be able to enjoy ourselves.

Secondly, the absence of personal responsibility. If anything happens to us we are always looking for someone else to blame. In this case, it's the bar - oh, how dare they have a drinks promotion - that was inevitably going to get someone hit by a bus! NO. It's YOUR CHOICE to abuse a drinks promotion and drink so much that you are wasted enough to not be able to control yourself and you get hurt.

We need to exercise some self-control for a change, and take personal responsibility for our actions/ choices.

This girl apparently has serious head injuries and a punctured lung - and I'm afraid she has no one to blame but herself. Okay, so I don't know all the facts - if her drink was spiked or something then I might change my mind but assuming she just had too much to drink, then I'm sorry but it's her own fault she got in the situation she did.

People are generally just happy to be ignorant about everything.

For example, our attitude towards money in this country is disgraceful. We never save any of what we earn, myself included. We treat it all as disposable and spend it without thinking twice. We go into our overdrafts without really thinking about it, and the general attitude is "oh well, worry about it later".

It's exactly the same kind of attitude that we show when it comes to drinking. People don't worry about the state they could get themselves into, it's "oh I'll just have another one, it's all a bit of banter". Not so much when you get hit by a bus.

I get so sick of the tendency of people in this country to blame other people for their problems and to just run away from or ignore everything. We spend recklessly, with the attitude "oh someone else will bail me out", "my overdraft will save me", "I'll pay it back at some point", "I want this item and I don't care if I can't afford it, I want it therefore I'm having it, I'll worry about the money later". We drink recklessly, with the attitude "oh someone else will make sure I'm okay and get home safely", "I won't worry about it, I'll just have another drink".

The case with this girl getting hit by a bus, and the subsequent reaction of the uni to shut down all drinks promotions knowing that they'll get the blame, is just another casualty of our society's bad attitudes.