A is for Accountability

Accountability

The quality or state of being accountable; especially :  an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions <public officials lacking accountability>



In my opinion accountability, or lack of it, is what is wrong with our society and culture today.  We see this in every aspect of our lives.   We no longer teach children the meaning and action of the words listed above.  Parents and family systems may strive to teach children these things but society as a whole sends the message that you "do what you want" and "it's all about me".  Our evening news is full of stories that reflect this.  We have people shooting people, rioting, looting and so on.  They blame their bad decisions and/or reactions on something that someone else did to provoke them.  If people don't accept responsibility for their own actions, society as we know it will crumble.  When something happens that you don't agree with, you don't have the right to act out in a way that causes chaos for others, you don't get to destroy things and have a tantrum.

In today's world the challenges we face seem to always be someone else's fault, never our own.  We no longer think there are consequences for our actions.  Our government is no longer accountable, neither are many of our social systems.  We see fraud, bailouts, and watch role models for our children getting away with outrageous behavior. The more we let this behavior go on, the more of this behavior we will see in the future.  It's almost as if this has become a new social norm.  We get to do what we want regardless of who it hurts or who it effects, and our lives continue on as normal with no real consequences or empathy towards what our actions have done to someone else. People who seem to never be accountable seem to get ahead and never suffer, yet people who live their lives doing "right" by their peers and are good community members struggle to get ahead. 

To me being accountable means that not only am I responsible for my behavior and/or actions, but I am also prepared for the consequences of those actions.  I don't blame others for my failures or my mistakes unless I know that I did everything I could do in the situation but got no cooperation from the other side.

Being accountable for our words, actions and deeds will change how we treat everyone we come into contact with, and we better get busy making this change, before it's too late.