Personal Responsibility and Psycho-Babble

Amy, thank you for your kind words. It is not popular to say such things out loud. In fact, it is risky.

However, I have found many people wait for somebody to say out loud what they think. Once another person speaks up, they rally to that person.

We did a classroom test of this when I was a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City. The test was to rearrange the order of the 10 Commandments.

As usual, one or two people ("radicals") dominated the classroom with their own agendas. Finally, I stated the 10 Commandmens have a logic as is.

The first three provide a compass for God-human relations; the last seven provide a compass for human-human relations.

However, without the "vertical" relationship in place with God to ground the human in right and wrong, the "horizontal" human-human relationships would collapse.

Professor Ianni took a vote.

My position won 75% of the persons in the room! They really rejected the "radicals" running their mouths. But they were afraid to assert their own viewpoint, for some reason, until somebody, a leader, your humble servant in this case, said out loud what 75% of them believed.

The classroom experiment opened my eyes. We, in America at least, let a small group of misfits browbeat us into accepting all kinds of whacko ideas and policies, although in our hearts we know they are wrong, and disagree with them. It is slowly, surely destroying us.

You could say my lecture for week 7 is a variation on the experiment at Columbia University. I risked saying out loud what many students, you for example, believe but fear to say.

I too hold my breath when I publish such lectures, in this case, a reflection on the lack of individual responsibility and accountability because of "psycho-babble" excuse-making.

As I stated in my lecture, sooner or later, the thought police will catch up with me. Until then, I will do my best to tell the truth. In that, I remain hopelessly old-fashioned.


Paul Rux, Ph.D.Xpert Planning & FundingWebsite: http://www.paulrux.net/

"Life is more than we think it to be." - Zona Gale