"I screwed up." ~Barack Obama, 2009
"Mistakes were made." ~Ronald Reagan, 1987
"As has become customary in public life, taking responsibility is without consequence, as was the case with Reno. It’s a phrase that means nothing more than: “Get this story off the front pages and move on to something that’s either more favorable, or less harmful, to my image.”" ~Jim Wooten, 2009
I suppose we could argue one party or the other's predilection for taking or not taking responsibility. I suppose.
But I doubt we can debate the difference between the active and passive voice.
5 comments:
Yes!! That passive voice shit kills me. Taking ownership of one's mistakes is part of being an adult.
There's even a book called "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)" that talks about why people avoid taking responsibility. Interesting stuff.
"Taking responsibility" doesn't mean much when people just get away with it anyway. If "taking responsibility" meant anything we wouldn't have a tax cheat at Treasury. That is an easy and recent reference, but there are literally dozens from all walks of life and all parts of politics, business, entertainment, etc
In my world, if you screw up and accept responsibility, you still get fired.
Amber Rhea - I may put that title on my reading list.
It's never made much sense to me why people resist admitting to mistakes. In my experience, people tend to respect you more and get over it faster if you just own up to it, apologize, and do what you can to fix it.
Excellent comments/advice. Should I ever make a mistake, I'll take 'em into consideration.
In my world, if you screw up and accept responsibility, you still get fired.
Well, sure. That would be part of the definition of "responsibility" - accepting the consequences of your actions.
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