Irresponsibility: The Obama Legacy

Once upon a time, sociologists attempted to explain mental illness by using what was called “labeling theory.” They argued that people came to be regarded as crazy when socially defined that way.  In practice, this meant only after these folks were sent to the mental hospital.

In other words, people became crazy after they were officially treated as such.  The same theory was also employed to explain criminality.  Individuals ostensibly became criminal when they got involved with the criminal justice system. Thus, were we to refrain from arresting and incarcerating them, they would remain law-abiding.

President Obama is evidently a devotee of this point of view.  When seeking to explain the police shootings of unarmed blacks, he pointed to the disproportionate number of minority members arrested and incarcerated.  This was, in his view, clear evidence of bias.  It reflected police attitudes, not black criminality.

Hence, if the police would just stop picking on innocent African-Americans, there would be no need for a Black Lives Matter movement.  Since minority misconduct obviously is caused by police provocation, eliminate this and there would be no crime.

Criminals, in short, are not responsible for crime; society is.  As a result, the police, i.e., the incarnation of social authority, must be reformed.  They, rather than the lawbreakers, are accountable.

In Barack Obama’s world, social forces, not individuals, are evil.  Institutional racism and legal gun ownership are the true cause of murder, rape, and mayhem.  Accordingly, stricter gun bans, whites only sensitivity training, and politically correct language would render social justice universal.

The trouble is that this policy makes as much sense as attributing craziness to mental hospitals.  People commit crimes.  There may be reasons some commit more than others, but these are explanations—not excuses.  They may tell us what motivates people, whereas they do not offer absolution for a lack of self-control.

A world in which the government is asked to protect us from every misfortune is one bereft of self-discipline.  By the same token, a nation where only society is held responsible for our misdeeds is one where irresponsibility will run rampant.  It is a place where mass shootings, petty slights, and interpersonal hatred are liable to become everyday occurrences.

We are today drowning in a sea of entitlements.  According to some politicians, we deserve free healthcare, free education, and a stress-free existence.  And yet, we have no corresponding duties.  We are to get whatever we desire, but need not refrain from vulgarity or bitter vituperation.

Nowadays unconditional positive regard extends to radical Islamists, racially inspired rioters, and gender-bending bathroom users.  It does not, however, cover those who object to their actions.  Because these latter folks demand responsibility, they are considered antediluvian relics.

So widespread has our culture of irresponsibility become that we insouciantly tolerate bald-faced lies, gang-banger violence, and parental malpractice.  Children are born out of wedlock, illegal aliens are provided public assistance, and students are excused from exams because they prefer to protest.

We especially see this trend in politics where the two most irresponsible candidates in living memory are on the ballot.  One was so negligent that she exposed Americans secrets to our enemies, whereas the other boasts of his profitable bankruptcies.  Nonetheless, millions voted for them.

 In Barack Obama’s world, IRS agents engaged in political discrimination with impunity, VA administrators condoned fake waiting lists, while an American ambassador was murdered without receiving protection.  Despite words of outrage, this is the legacy he leaves behind.

Partisanship, not human decency, thus reigns supreme.  We do not demand responsibility because that would be judgmental.  And so we blame an amorphous system or our political enemies.  This, of course, lets the perpetrators off Scott free.

A responsible society does not explain away inconvenient truths.  It does not blame racism for mass murder.  Rather, it identifies those who fail to exercise self-control.  A smug pseudo-moralism only produces anarchy.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University