It is unbelievable how the majority of society has grown to truly be disgusting, greedy and selfish. People have chosen to be ignorant and arrogant. Being wrong is now a sign of weakness. We enable our children to believe they are perfect and the results can be vile. The toxicity of this behavior is sometimes impossible to fathom unless it is experienced. This country needs to have the very difficult discussion about accountability and enablement and how one has directly impacted the other. Otherwise, we are headed for some very dark days that can be even worse than what is currently happening in this climate.
Let\’s start on a small scale. I have spent the majority of my career working in customer service. Most people have used and abused the sentiment that “the customer is always right.” This creates a very toxic cycle for service workers. I hate to break it to you, that in and of itself is a method of enablement so that companies will get your money. As a result, customers have a zero concept of being accountable for their own actions. Even worse, if an employee of that company does not accommodate the customer based on rules the company has put in place, the employee is put at risk for verbal and physical abuse. Just look at all the videos surrounding the abuse of Popeyes employees simply because the store sold out of a chicken sandwich! America as a whole has lost basic human decency for people they deem are “beneath” them.
On a larger scale, the President of the United States has perpetuated a white supremacist narrative for the entirety of his campaign and presidency. White Americans enabled and disregarded Trump because there was “no way he could possibly win”. Not only that, but White children often have the luxury of being openly racist towards their Black and Brown peers. Often times the blatant racism is dismissed by faculty and parents because they are “just kids”. As a result, these children grow up to be adult bigots. They develop a sense of entitlement where they feel they have the right to react uncontrollably.
At the end of the day, it is truly a necessity to teach accountability at a young age. Part of growing up is learning from mistakes. It is not possible to learn if people do not first take the time to recognize that a mistake has happened and become accountable for it. For that reason, I believe the start to ending these crises is leading our children to respect all people and to be accountable for their own actions. While there will always be evil people, Americans need to step up and not only be the change but teach it as well.