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When my wife and I wrote an essay a week ago (adapted from our book “Tightrope”) about my old school mates who had died prematurely, the reader reaction was sometimes ugly. A reader in Georgia, Ajax, scoffed that this was “natural selection weeding out those less fit for survival.”
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There were likewise lots of comments about “personal responsibility” and suggesting that when people use drugs or otherwise make bad choices, there’s nothing to be done. Of course, “personal responsibility” is a real issue, but imagine if we applied this reasoning to auto safety. We’d hear arguments like this:
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Auto crashes often are a result of speeding, drinking or texting. If we coddle drivers with air bags and padded dashboards, and have ambulances ready to rescue them, they’ll never learn. Better to implant spikes in dashboards so that people learn to drive responsibly!
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I decided to write my Sunday column about this narrative of personal responsibility because I think it’s at the root of many of our country’s failed policies over the last half-century. This narrative has led to underinvestment in human capital, to counterproductive policies like mass incarceration and the war on drugs, and to Americans becoming less competitive in the world today. So please check out my column and see if you agree on the need for a new social narrative that is more rooted in empathy and investment in all.
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