Irrespective of their differences the Great Depression of the 1930′s and the recent recession magnified the unfaltering human desire to attribute responsibility, to incriminate, and to blame.

Appropriately aimed this physiological behavior of devaluation can be used to fashion constructive change.  Misaligned these negative feelings can rot away the very will to believe.

The difference between the Great Depression and the recent recession is where we are targeting the blame.  I’ll share my view and then leave it up to you to determine which is more constructive.

From Aurthur Miller’s autobiography, Timebends:

“It has often been said that what kept the United States from revolution in the depths of the Great Depression was the readiness of Americans to blame themselves rather than the system for their downfall.  A fine dusting of guilt fell upon the shoulders of the failed fathers, and for some unknown number of them there would never be a recovery of dignity and self-assurance, only an endless death-in-life down to the end.

Already in their early thirties, within a year or two of the collapse, the papers were reporting that in New York City alone there were nearly a hundred thousand people who had been psychologically tramatized to the point where they would never be able to work again.  Nor was it only a question of insuficient food; it was hope that had gone out of them, the life illusion and the capacity to believe again.”

Both events included large scale failures of what we thought were properly functioning economic systems.  Obviously both also included poor decisions made by independent individuals which wove their lives and fortunes into the system (simplifying the situations: stock market speculation then, unaffordable houses now).

Then: Self-blame
In the Great Depression men overwhelmingly blamed themselves for their financial ruin often to a point of psychological trauma.

Nor was it only a question of insuficient food; it was hope that had gone out of them, the life illusion and the capacity to believe again. 

Now: Victim-blame
Too many exclusive polls and “top 10″ lists exist to mention but it is obvious that today we overwhelmingly blame the system and the leaders of the system for our financial ruin.

Which is better?
Forcing myself to choose only one and discussing these behaviors from the standpoint of an individual citizen, it is my feeling that self-blame is, to a degree, more constructive.

Either behavior taken to extreme is very harmful, however waiting around for others to fix the system or becoming so skeptical of the system as to never participate in it again are potentially more harmful behaviors than introspection into your own failures or misunderstandings that caused your misfortune.


Introspection was the key word in that last sentence because if you are so destroyed and sapped of belief in yourself as to kill any desire for engagement and success then any chance of recovery through new and improved ideas is lost.

Related posts:

1. The Great Global Warming Swindle?
2. The Great Jam Exchange!
3. Cold and blustery today
4. Today is a good day

Tagged as: Debates