Metro News - Newspaper Online - formerly Toorak Metro News Victoria au newspaper Melbourne south eastern Bayside Melbourne

Whether it’s members of your family, friends, people you work with, employers and public figures such as politicians, can you remember the last time someone publicly took responsibility for their actions and admitted that they were wrong, made a mistake or even just apologised? I would hasten to guess that you haven’t heard it happen very often.

Older generations like to remind us that not that long ago, in all walks of life, people were more accountable for their actions. Today, though, we’ve moved in to the “excuse driven and the blame everybody and everything else before ourselves” culture. Why has this happened, and what does this mean for society if this trend continues?

Standard of Accountability

One reason people often give for their lack of accountability, particularly in business and government circles, is the litigious society we now live in. An admission of fault has the potential to open us to the possibility that we might get sued. Another reason is that our life in the “fast food, on demand, time poor, big today and gone tomorrow” society requires less effort, time and thought on our part, thus making it easier to blame our ills on others. The final reason is poor leadership. This is a vicious circle: although the general public likes to point a finger at our leaders’ failure to set a good example, the leaders in turn, lower their standard of accountability in response to the public’s lax ones.

These all may be true - wholly or in part. But did you ever pause and ponder that technology might be an underlying perpetuator for this lack of accountability? I can imagine the puzzled look on your faces at this point, so let me explain using a common example.

Common Example

A scandal breaks involving a government minister and because of the speed of communication and huge number of media sources, the public is made aware of it within minutes.

At the same time the minister and his or her staff respond with a strategy to combat these allegations. Because they know that a lot of what’s being said is true and that a flat-out denial won’t work, they try a non-specific denial, based on their lack of awareness about the events.

Technology is on their side. It has allowed the explosion of many media outlets, as well as the ability to issue media releases stating their version of events very quickly. Technology can also be used to distract attention away from them. A friendly media source can always be found for a not too probing, carefully planned interview. The internet can be used to spread rumours that others were involved and by doing this, reduce the intensity of the heat on one single person.

Sceptical Strategies

The people in our example know that, at best, these strategies may work, and at worst, they’ll buy them a little time. At least until the next major world event or sporting success that will shift media and public focus maybe never to return.
Think back to the AWB enquiry that was closely followed by the Beaconsfield Mine Disaster, then by the World Cup.

Firstly, the heat was on some of our most senior government figures, then suddenly this shifted to the rescue of two trapped miners and the safety of our mining industry, and, before you could blink, that too was forgotten and the attention moved on to the Socceroos who, in turn, are now also largely forgotten by the majority of the public.

Abusing Technology

Earlier, I posed the question: what does this mean for society if these trends continue? Well, as technology is becoming more sophisticated, it will continue to be an effective medium that will assist people and institutions to perpetuate their lack of accountability.

However, our refusal to accept our own faults means that we will never learn from our mistakes. We will continue to expect others to pick up the tab. This may work in good times, but not in bad times.

What’s is certain is that in a society where depression, suicide, divorce rates and homelessness are rising, this inability to admit fault and be considerate of others will diminish our overall happiness.

Chris Jacob is a director of Jive exchange www.jiveexchange.com/metronews