Originally Posted by
Brutus the Pimp
If you think this argument is silly, fine... it's your opinion. But bringing the whole Mel Gibson thing into the discussion is doing more to provoke an argument than anything I've said. That made it more about me than it did about the argument you disagree with. This topic isn't about Mel Gibson and it certainly isn't about me.
My arguments aren't to blame the victim. They're just a different perspective for personal accountability, something our culture lacks now that it's always someone else's fault.
When kids become unruly, blame the parents. Employees go against their better judgement for a voluntary job and then get hurt, blame the employers. So many people do things they know they shouldn't be doing, exercising poor judgment, but when an accident inevitably happens, the media, the courts and others find a way to blame other involved parties.
It doesn't take life experience to know when you're in a life-threatening situation. This kid was no different. He recognized the risks, even made them public prior to going up there, and willingly let himself go into harm's way for the job.
He's not alone. A lot of people have done that. A lot of kids most certainly are impressionable and would have done just as he did for Notre Dame's football program. But does that justify a bad decision? I never once was taught it was OK to exercise bad judgment because it was a job or because it was for money. I know this is extreme, but military personnel have unfortunately been prosecuted criminally for just following orders, to which they are more intricately bound by their military commanders.
I do blame Notre Dame for not having better standards in place for letting the program operate that equipment. But it's time we stop saying, "he's a 20 year old kid that didn't want to upset a coach," and start saying, "he's legally an adult and can recognize whether any job is worth putting your life at risk for."
It's a narrow view of the world to shift absolutely all responsibility on an employer. After all, jobs are voluntary. If our life is in danger, WE have the ability to opt out of it. Even if it costs us our job it can save our life. If we are forced to make that choice, there will be a time and place to criticize the employer for having to make it, but it's absolutely ridiculous that we insinuate an employee can't make that decision for himself. A man does control his own destiny with the situations he involves himself with, the decisions he makes, the company he keeps and the consequences of his own actions. Safety isn't limited to just a manager or employer. It depends on the workers to abide by the standards and using discretion when necessary.
What we have here is a situation where the proper standards were not in place and a worker didn't use discretion.
Thanks for making this a black and white issue, which it's unfortunately not. Now back to the real world where we all have choices, we all are accountable for our own choices and when we ignore our common sense, sometimes bad things happen.