Personal Responsibility

[ItsBruce]

I am posting this here because it relates to accidents and incidents and I cannot think where else to post it.

One thing that I see time and again in reading about accidents and incidents is the discussion of "personal responsibility."

I am all for personal responsibility. It appears to me that the diving community is big on personal responsibility. That is good with me, too.

Maybe it is because I live in Los Angeles, but it seems to me that the diving community is bigger on personal responsibility than the rest of society. Is my perception here wrong?

I won't bother trying to identify incidents in which people who are hurt look for someone to blame. (McDonalds and the hot coffee comes right to mind.) Nor will I bother trying to identify incidents in which someone does something that clearly is wrong and no one wants to criticize them. (Roman Polanski comes to mind.)

So are we divers that much different from the rest of society? Or is my little corner of society just a bad corner?

 

[Jax]

I won't bother trying to identify incidents in which people who are hurt look for someone to blame. (McDonalds and the hot coffee comes right to mind.) Nor will I bother trying to identify incidents in which someone does something that clearly is wrong and no one wants to criticize them. (Roman Polanski comes to mind.)

Personal responsibility pertains to corporations, as well.

The McDonald's story is classic of "partial truth gets the news". Here's the rest of the story:
Fact: McDonald's superheats (above boiling) the water they blow through their coffee, so they can get more cups per pound of coffee. (or they used to, don't now)
Fact: They had received more that 1,700 complaints of serious injury to customers and staff, prior to this famous case.
Fact: The woman involved received 3rd degree burns to her privates, butt, and legs. That means her skin literally cooked.

So, do you, as a consumer, expect to be burned if you spill coffee on yourself? Yeah, probably. Do you expect to be COOKED, needing months of repair surgery, and godawful pain, because of the corporate greed that wanted to get a few more cups of coffee from that pound? Corporate that -- it was proven! -- knew full well that this was happening?

But yes - I believe in personal responsibility. I do not want the world to pad its sharp corners because of one or two idiots . . . but nor do I expect them to leave a sinkhole in the middle of an expressway . . .

 

[InTheDrink]

This one's surely bound for the pub.

I'd be very surprised if divers didn't represent a normal cross section of society.

Don't know how many SB members there are, but you never know, we might even have our very own serial killer on the list.

Anyhow, short answer - no, divers are not that much different from the rest of society.

 

[I Dive]

This one's surely bound for the pub.

I'd be very surprised if divers didn't represent a normal cross section of society.

Don't know how many SB members there are, but you never know, we might even have our very own serial killer on the list.

Anyhow, short answer - no, divers are not that much different from the rest of society.

I disagree. I think overall divers are a much better group of people than average society. Sure, there are buttheads, idiots, criminals, and yes unfortunately murderers who are divers. But, overall, I've found better people in diving than any other group I've ever been aware of. They seem friendlier, easier to get along with it, and a helluva lot more trustworthy in general. I'm not sure why but that has definitely been my experience and observation.

 

[dkktsunami]

I Dive, I agree with you that divers seem to be a way better than average group, also a very diverse group in which everyone seems to get along nicely. I have noticed this with fly fishermen and backpackers also. Dive boats have almost become universal for me, the same characters but with different names. The dive community is one that I fit in comfortably with and am happy to have an association with this group. And, as noted, the level of personal responsibility is high but divers are also happy to lend a hand when needed.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Personal responsibility is not taught, it is learned through experience. Activities like serious diving, back country camping, blue water boating, even scouting (at the senior levels) provide the experience necessary to develop personal responsibility. It takes time, it takes small mistakes to make it a personal trait.

 

[InTheDrink]

You don't think that you're skewing this because you have a shared interest with divers? Do you not think that every group of everyone thinks they're special?

It's a bit like thinking your baby is beautiful - of course you're going to. Doesn't change the reality tho (although my children are genuinely beautiful).

I'm juust playing devil's advocate here. Nothin you've said so far makes me think an average diver is any different from an average chess player or average rock climber of average whatever - i.e. member of society.

Divers are, however, fatter.

J

 

[pacificgal]

I always thought divers were better in that respect because it's a buddy sport and we're supposed to look after our buddy?

 

[InTheDrink]

I always thought divers were better in that respect because it's a buddy sport and we're supposed to look after our buddy?

How's that different from society at large?

 

[pacificgal]

Good question. I don't know. I do know that if I saw anyone in trouble I would try to help, but do feel more personally responsible if the person is my buddy because I made that commitment to be there for them if they ran out of air or became entangled. Maybe it's a personal thing?