Taking personal responsibility

As a therapist personal responsibility is a main foundation of my work. Carl Rogers, the founder of person centred therapy, created the seven point ladder of blaming others for everything in your life to taking full responsibility. Even if there are societal prejudices against one or more aspects of your self, this is not an excuse to fail or give up and carry the weight of the blaming for the rest of your life, but to know your abilities and push yourself over and over again till you succeed. Concepts of privilege simply point out we all start from somewhere different, but that should not stop anyone in a free country which stops discrimination by law from getting wherever they are capable of getting, female, black, disabled or gay should really not be a barrier.

Politics reinforces this sense of blame by inventing concepts taken from far left sociology and Marxism, which claim each social group begins the race with a handicap which inevitable makes it very difficult, sometimes impossible, to succeed purely based on who they are. Such delusions are the main reasons people come for counselling, and the purpose of it is to stop looking outwards at others and inwards to what you have to offer. It is the same as the parents who constantly compare their children with others, despite the fact no two individuals, even twins, are the same, and although everyone should be treated equal each is uniquely different and simply cannot perform the same as anyone else. This is all backed up with science and not open for discussion except the ways society can either restrict or improve an individual from completing their potential.

If you believe anything strongly enough you will then go on to both act as if it was true, and persuade others to accept it as well. But this is only a contagious mass delusion, and just because most people believe it never makes it right. Entire political parties and movements are built on such delusions, the imaginary view that even though such laws have changed society is still against blacks, gays and women. And even if there is prejudice this is not a reason for anyone to fail where they have the talent to succeed. A story I heard was about how women painters were overlooked in the 19th century, and pointed out even if they signed the pictures with initials rather than their full names you see the painting first and judge it on its quality. But if women accept they cannot be accepted as painters and composers, despite it being physically impossible to know the creator unless you were told shows how easy it is to pick up such mental viruses and take them on board as if real. Just because there is a handful of genuinely prejudiced people in all societies is no reason to act as though they have any actual power. The only power they ever have is what you give them, they have none themselves.

Therefore all politics based on such ideas is both false and dangerous. It leads to strikes, riots, repressive laws and worse. However good it feels to maintain the childish views that everyone deserves equal benefits in life it is not a fair world. We are not entitled to anything we do not have, besides the basics for survival with a welfare state. Anything else is not the state's official responsibility, however many make it so. Collectivism may work for a society with nothing, but once there is a structure where people can have a safety net for the poor and incapable the rest is down to their own efforts. The fact some inherit money and others have very little is just reality and nothing to do with anyone else. Just because another person can live without working is not a reason you should take it off them to make your own life better. That is called theft in normal circumstances, while giving your family money is a personal choice however unfair it may seem to those who do not have it. The alternative of taking it for the state is the only one which is infinitely worse, and it doesn't go back to the poor, it goes into the treasury with no accountability for where it ends up ultimately.

To sum up, all politics based on false views of privilege cause nothing but problems. Social engineering has no place in a free society as we employ politicians and civil servants with our taxes and votes, and none have the right to tell us how to live. If people vote for a totalitarian law then it is the people's fault for not realising they will actually suffer from the consequences as much as the people they have targeted it at. Choking the economy will affect it all whichever organ you shut off, much the same as a human body. Without free movement of people, speech and money you are no longer living in a free country, even when people have voted to restrict the freedom. The answer is education and not more power to the people who do not understand life or politics, and always make up the majority. Until they become fully educated as to how society really works, rather than how they think it should they will rule by the power of the majority.