The Missing Link: Responsibility

 

What ever happened to taking responsibility for your actions? I was taught growing up that if you did something wrong or made a mistake, you took the blame yourself. Blaming others or making excuses is for the weak and is not only dishonest to those you hurt, but in the end it is being dishonest with yourself. Apparently I had some of the only intelligent parents around at that time.

 

I flipped on the TV to watch while I ate supper. There was a show on TLC called “Too Young To Be So Fat”, it was about of extremely fat kids trying to lose weight. One girl was 13 and weighed like 350 pounds! She wanted to get liposuction because she claimed “diets just don’t work for me”. She said she had tried but basically just couldn’t stop eating. When she went to the doctor they said she was too unhealthy to undergo the procedure and would have to lose some weight first. In tears her and her mom left the doctor’s office. Oh my God, I have to lose some weight on my own before you will suck it out of me while I’m sleeping?

 

Afterwards the girl started questioning why God had made her fat, and her mom said she didn’t think it was the little girl’s fault, and she didn’t think it was her own fault; it was just one of those things. The very next scene was the mom preparing a healthy meal of steak and salad. As soon as the fat little girl sat down she exclaimed “I’ve never had a meal like this”, and then bitched about eating tomatoes and the other healthy stuff.

 

So it’s not the mom’s fault yet she has never prepared a healthy meal for the girl before then? What the fuck? And of course it isn’t the girl’s fault because she can’t stop stuffing her pie hole. There are all sorts of new “studies” being published all the time about how obesity can affect one in X number of people and all this horse shit, like obesity is some airborne pathogen. “Oh my God, don’t go near that fat guy you might catch obesity!”.

 

What ever happened to taking responsibility for your own actions? I’m fat because I eat too much. No, I’m fat because I was born with a gene that makes me that way and it isn’t my fault, you should feel sorry for me. Fuck that. It’s the same line of logic every where you look. People who hack up their family with an ax aren’t evil people anymore; they have psychological problems stemming from their youth or are born with an aggressive nature. People who want to fuck the same sex aren’t weird, they were born that way and it is totally normal, it’s not just some weird fetish they want to enjoy.

 

Why can’t anyone admit they fucked up or are fucked up? Where does this politically correct bullshit end? There are cop outs for everything in the book now. Next time I don’t feel like going in to work I’m going to tell them I have a disability and I have trouble working for a month straight and have to take a paid week off every 30 days. Or maybe next time I’m at the gym and can’t lift enough I’ll start shooting up steroids because I have a genetic limitation and can’t get stronger.

 

During his early days of bodybuilding Arnold Schwarzenegger had extremely small calves, so small in fact that most of his early photo shoots where done of him standing up to his knees in water, or standing behind something. Some people are genetically gifted and have naturally large calves and others can’t seem to get them to grow no matter how hard they worked out. Arnold was one of the later. Did Arnold give up? Did he blame his genes and say fuck it? Hell no. Arnold began training his calves with insane intensity. He would load up a calf raise machine, and then have people climb on his back and stand on the machine to add even more weight. He even cut off the legs of all his gym pants so his calves would be on constant display, reminding him of his goal. The result? He showed up at the next competition with amazing calves. People would come up to him and actually compliment him on just his calves alone. Arnold didn’t take the easy way out and expect others to sympathize; he took action and didn’t let his genetic limitations slow him down.

 

Take some responsibility for your actions, or inactions in some cases. If you are such a pansy you have to blame the one thing you have no control over, something you were born with, then all I have to say is shut the fuck up.

America = Land of the…Stupid?

 

Daily I am more and more convinced that America is a country of retards. Sometimes I fear I am one of only a few intelligent people left in this country. Yesterday on the highway I was pondering how so many people can suck at driving so badly. Engineers have made it so simple, press one big pedal with your foot and you go forward, press the other and you slow down. Turn the big ass wheel in front of you and you turn left to right? How can so many people completely fuck it up?

 

While wondering this I looked at the person riding my ass down the highway in my passenger side mirror and noticed more evidence of the stupidity of my fellow Americans. Etched on the glass were the words “Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear”. No shit.

 

We have coffee cups that say “Caution…Hot” on the outside, signs that tell you the obviously soaking wet floor in front of you is wet, and hairdryers with huge labels saying not to use them while submerged in water. As I write this I’m preparing my supper and just realized my can of non-stick cooking spray says in bold on the back “Do Not Spray in Eyes”.

 

How can it be that everyone is so fucking stupid? The entire world we live in has been tailored to provide the absolutely safest, most brain numbing experience possible, requiring no thought to go about our day to day tasks safely. Yet somehow people still do stupid shit. People haul ass out of a stop sign just to slam their brakes on at the next one. People burn themselves on items that have bright red signs that say HOT. I hate to think what the world would be like without all the great warnings and signs that have been provided.

 

Then again, what if it was all of this overcautious signage and obvious warnings that made people so stupid in the first place? What if as danger and risk was slowly eliminated from people’s day to day lives they just became that much stupider.

 

Nissan recently announced a new feature that will be on their cars, the “Eco-Pedal”. Basically the gas pedal has force feedback and if the car computer think you are accelerating too quickly given the driving conditions it senses, it pushes back, thus limiting your acceleration. Apparently Nissan has noticed the stupidity of Americans as well. We like to buy big SUV’s, haul ass all around town in them, and then complain about getting 10 MPG. Nissan claims the Eco-Pedal will help teach people correct driving habits to consume less fuel and drive more safely. What the fuck! People are so damn stupid their cars are now going to have to help them learn to drive?

 

As stupid as people are these days I’m surprised we are even allowed to drive. If I were president I would sign a bill tomorrow stating all stupid ass warnings and labels like the “Caution…Hot” label be removed immediately. After a few year of mass chaos and two thirds of the U.S. population died from their own stupid mistakes I would then start over with the remaining third of intelligent people, creating a world where people actually used their brains for something other than holding water (the brain is made up of mostly water for the stupid crowd out there).