Taking responsibility and self sufficiency are two highly valued traits in America. However, it’s almost too easy to browse the headlines and find people doing the exact opposite.

Entertainment- Lindsay Lohan blames “being young” and her father for her drug abuse and legal issues. Oil spills- industry executives blame each other. Politics- Sarah Palin, enough said. Sports- blame. Bad economy? Blame the president, the last president, Democrats, Republicans… the list goes on. It seems that in these times that try men’s souls, the men respond by pointing fingers.

Of course, this is hardly new behavior. JFK’s famous “Ask not what your country can do for you” quote likely would not have been uttered without somewhat of a blame-happy culture. The whole McCarthyism era was fixated on blaming Communists for all that was wrong with the world. But it seems the bad times really bring out the worst in us. So why do we have all this blame flying around?

It starts with the bottom- our way of raising kids, as parents, teachers and guardians. Being an immigrant from China, the most striking contrast I found with America’s education system is that it is very praise-oriented. Good deeds are applauded as the students’ individual accomplishment while bad deeds are glossed over in the name of “encouraging positive development and growth.” In recent times especially, the students seem to never be at fault- it’s always the parents, teachers, or “the system” that has failed them. The result? Kids who grow up thinking that it’s never their fault. As this has been going on since the fifties, almost everyone who is not nearing senility shares this attitude. You likely don’t listen to your grandma anyway.

America’s blame culture can also be attributed to political promises. Go look up any speech by any political candidate, and it will always contain two things: blame for the audience’s current woes (preferably on the opposing candidate), and a quick fix, easy solution for all their troubles. They exploit Americans’ tendencies to find blame whenever some problem pops up to offer “answers”, therefore reinforcing the blame culture. The “quick fix” campaign style further encourages blaming as the seeming simplicity of voter’s problems only makes the incumbents seem all the more incompetent. Then, invariably, when the politician gets voted into office and fails to deliver on his or her overly lofty promises, the constituency and the next election opponents start laying the blame. And so on.

So what’s so bad about blaming others?

Well, have you ever seen a squabbling rabble get anything done? That’s a pretty apt analogy for the state of American government and society in the present.