Eleanor Roosevelt once said “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” Although Roosevelt said this decades ago, her message still holds true today: people are defined by their actions and choices. However, over the years, society has developed the idea that intentions or thoughts can also define people with phrases such as “Don’t judge me” or “It’s the thought that counts” becoming more and more commonplace. While thoughts and feelings hold some importance, it is the actions that leave a lasting imprint on others. It is the choices one makes that leave a lasting impact on an individual’s life or even, multiple individuals. …show more content…
While this may be true in some cases, not all victims are blameless. There is a clear distinction between someone who is an actual victim of a crime and someone who ended up as a victim due a series of poor choices. For example, someone decides to leave his/her car running with the keys in the ignition while he/she goes into the store to buy a few supplies, and the car gets stolen. Although what the thief did is unethical, the individual’s irresponsibility opened an opportunity for the criminal to steal his/her car. On the other hand, an actual victim would be someone who parks his/her car in the driveway at night, locks it, and sets the alarm; however, in the middle of the night, it gets broken into and stolen. Here’s the critical difference between the two scenarios: the first person is a victim of his/her conscious, reckless decision to leave the car running; while the second person took responsible measures to prevent car theft, yet ended up in an unfortunate situation. The first person can be held accountable for his/her careless decisions, but the second person cannot be blamed because he/she took responsibility for his/her …show more content…
Afraid to take responsibility, these people refuse to make any choices that may lead to them to getting labeled as a “criminal” or “delinquent.” Some people go as far as to hide their own actions, thoughts, and behaviors by blaming others for their behavior or choices. Donald Trump exhibits this behavior himself, especially regarding his infamous “Access Hollywood” tape--a recording of him making vulgar comments about women. During his presidential campaign, he publicly admitted to the authenticity of the recording; however, Trump recently claimed that the voice on the tape was either Hillary Clinton imitating him or that the tape was fake. Whether or not his allegations are true, the fact that he has revoked his previous confession, and has begun to blame others indicates that he is hiding the truth. Admittedly, one could assert that somebody who hated Trump did fake the tape and thus, turned him into a victim of fraudulence. However, a more compelling perspective is that the voice on the tape does belong to Trump, and after the issue of his sexual harassment swept through America, he began regretting his decision to record/publish the “Access Hollywood” tape. People tend to blame others if they refuse to acknowledge their responsibility or are unable to accept what happened. He may have realized his mistake, but his pride and stubbornness
“I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
In America we believe in the saying “you are innocent until proven guilty” but we the people are remarkably swift to point our fingers at someone we believe that committed the crime. This habit is frequently displayed within our criminal justice system when a crime is committed we quickly assume it has something to do with the first person we can link the crime to. We tend to naturally feel sympathy for the victim therefore; if the individual accuses one for a crime the jury has no reason not to believe the victim. Society does not bother to care if the individual did not do the crime because as long as someone was caught and accused of the wrongdoing, then we the people can proceed on with our lives knowing we punished someone for the crime
Tests and decisions are as numerous in any man's life as are the beats of his heart. The consequences follow him forever - he is judged by them and they affect his entire existence. However, judgement should not be passed on a man's single decisions individually, but only by observing how he has chosen to live his life.
According to J.K Rowling, “It is our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities.” This conclusion postulates that it does not matter whether a person is fragile or robust, brilliant or dull, gifted or challenged, it is the choices that they make in life that crystallize who they are as people. Yet, can these words be ripped from their simple format and be plastered to the pillars of life themselves? For example, does the child protégé always have the will power to use their knowledge and select the right path? Or does the godlike athlete always think twice before taking a third steroid pill that week? In other words, this statement truly holds the glittering gold of truth and is often exhibited throughout society, and frequently through history as well. Two pieces of literature that clearly demonstrate this idea of a person’s personal building blocks being their decisions are the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck and the Epic Poem, The Odyssey, by Homer. These texts both support this observation by requiring the protagonist to formulate great decisions that define them as people and what will be in store for them later in life.
According to Nash, the definition of “victim” is a slippery concept. Nast notes that as a matter of law, whether someone is a victim of a crime may depend, among other things, on the type and extent of injury sustained, the tenuousness of the connection of injury to the offender’s conduct, and whether the victim was at fault in the criminal transactions. Nash also note that that the term, “victim” is inconsistently applied in the various arenas of federal criminal law. While the definitions of “victim found in the federal restitution and victim’s rights statutes are functionally identical, the federal Rules of Criminal Procedure define “victim” differently. (Wallace; Roberson
an active state in the mind or whether it is a mental state, like a
Still, even if one does put their mind to use, one must then use it in a way that will benefit society or improve oneself. Regret often comes to...
...es that we might have, and accept who we are. The everyday hardships of life tempt us to do many things, but controlling our temptations and guilt is the key to making us successful in society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emerson is a firm believer of maintaining self-reliance and values rather than following the crowd. He also explains that in order to be truly successful in life, a person must make decisions and trust in his or her judgment. In today’s society, teenagers are more likely to not be self-reliant because the teens feel they will be judged for having different beliefs. People today need to realize that they should not conform to be like the rest of the world, they must not depend on the judgment and criticism of others, and people must refuse to travel somewhere in order to forget their personal problems. Through Emerson’s piece, readers are able to reflect on how people in the world today must try to be independent of others and uphold their personal opinions and philosophy.
We live our entire lives caring about other people 's opinions of ourselves where they seem to become our own but they don’t have to. While most of us as we grow up will realize how foolish this was and be themselves anyway; It takes too long, as children we are not shown to be ourselves but shown to follow the crowd, the safe route. The younger generations need to see that risks can change your life for the better and let each of us live a happier more fulfilled
Blaming the victim of rape is a well-documented phenomenon which may be subtle in its presence, such as when one makes unrealistic statements about what the victim could have done to protect themselves; alternatively, it may take the form of outright displacement of the blame for the entire crime, an example being one saying the victim was asking for it. As a result of this widespread and sometimes subtle presence in the cultural psyche, victim blaming not only finds itself in the minds of random citizens whose beliefs alone have little effect on the lives of others, but in the decisions made by those in the Criminal Justice System who find themselves involved in rape cases. As a result of the ubiquitous and fallacious attitudes towards rape that seep into the Criminal Justice System from larger society, victim blaming creates bias in a system which should be without anything of the sort.
People have their own judgments of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. An example of a self-schema could be a person who classifies themselves by certain descriptions such as being liberal, Catholic, an artist, a dog person, intelligent; the list continues on. This is what helps us define ourselves from the group; our self-concepts are what help us create our own identity separate from the society that shapes us. Reading into books nine through eleven in the book of Meditations the author declares, “He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad” (book, ?). We can take this to mean like social psychology that individuals have self-schemas and that ultimately only the person(s) themselves can be held accountable for their decisions and not blame others for how they were brought up. Each person can decide how their life turns out if they are, “…moderate, sincere, honest, and calm” (book, ?). We must be willing to take the consequences that come with positive or negative outcomes even if that means we do not get immediate gratification and more so if things do not turn out they way we imagined they would. In this case we must rely on our own imagined presence of others to drive us to be the ‘best’ person ultimately we can become as
I think that there is a difference between the term victim precipitation and victim blaming but it is easy to blur those lines. Victim precipitation is not necessarily blaming the victim for the crime they were a victim of but merely looking at how their actions influenced or provided the opportunity for the crime. In some crimes such as homicide this may be possibly used as a mitigation circumstance for the offender. For example: if someone is a victim of homicide because they attacked another and then were killed while the second party was defending themselves this would be a mitigating circumstance for the offender. Victim blaming simply places fault on the victim for what happened and comes across much more negatively.
Irresponsibility is a major flaw of human beings. History shows the negative effects that irresponsibility has on a society. The Crucible written by the late Arthur Miller demonstrates the adverse effects of irresponsibility on society. The Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible draws direct parallels to the McCarthyism of the 1950s. The irresponsibility displayed in Arthur Miller's The Crucible written over six decades ago has numerous similarities to present day. The acts of irresponsibility exhibited throughout The Crucible by Reverend Parris, Abigail Williams, and Marry Warren is very similar to today.
A writer from Southernct stated a fact that “ men, women, and children of all ages, races, religions, and economic classes have been victims of sexual assault. Sexual assault occurs in rural areas, small towns, and larger cities” ( “Southernct” 1). We have all seen on the news a case where a female has been raped and somehow the world makes us believe that it was her own fault that it happened. This is due to victim blaming. Victim blaming occurs when the victim of some sort of crime or wrongdoing is held partially or fully responsible for what happened to them. It is not always easy to identify though. Some people would be considered to be victim blaming over every day situations in life. For example, someone making the