Surrender to My Indignation!

Not yet having the home computer (note: just because the shipping company has the words `same day’ in their name doesn’t mean that should be taken as a literal description of service, stupid 12 days to ship), I haven’t been posting my usual stuff here: I can’t upload or scan my photos at work, so I’m left to other devices. That said, here goes a good, old-fashioned rant, inspired by Crapshoot’s excellent entry about the Supreme Court case that will decide the level of responsibility for guests that hosts have at their house parties. This originally started as a shorter thing to put in the `comments’ of the post, but it got too big. BTW: for high-quality ranting, Crapshoot is the place that will scratch your itch. Check it out.

Here comes the rant.

That this case made it to the Supreme Court is a symptom of a paradoxical trend in society today, the trend toward increased individualism and self-acknowledgement on the one hand, and on the other the need to subcontract responsibility out to anyone else but yourself; to be a victim. We have the freedom and ability to focus on our own lives and interests and choices with little to no regard for societal norms or other people, at least other people who may not think the same way. This freedom is leading many to find specialized groups of like-minded individuals that only serve to further self-validation, not development or acknowledgement of diversity. Add to this the twisted and apparent need to stake a claim on the wrong end of a power imbalance, to thrust the responsibility for a given situation onto everyone else in the hope that it will stick to someone, in order to cultivate the fruitless idea that someone else should have stepped in, because we can't take karma or fate directly to task, or at face value. Now, what does that sound like to you? That’s right: children. Children rely on external sources for their care and well-being. Whenever their world is upset, the blame is directed externally, because their safety and security are almost exclusively provided by these external sources. Children are also selfish, at the beginning of a process of development that naturally starts with exploration and acknowledgement of the self before an expansion into the recognition that the people in their lives are more than just part of their physical reality, that more sophisticated and abstract relationships are possible with those people. As our culture delves further and further down the age ladder into youth culture for trends to popularize and mass produce, this tendency towards youth culture is permeating cultural attitude: simplified, the world revolves around me, but anything that goes wrong is your fault.

That aside, bad shit happens for no reason, from out of the blue, to everyone. Maturity leads people to bear it, to learn to accept and live with it, and move on, especially when it is hard. Immaturity leads people to try and turn back the clock, to deny what happened, to hold onto what no longer exists; the anger that comes with the unfairness and realization that everything has changed fuels irrational backlash.

Rant: complete. I still have some questions about the potential decision about liability, so bear with me.

a) Can party hosts be held liable if they are also intoxicated, and unable to make a reasonable decision, or will this decision render hosts unable to enjoy their own party, but become hyper-alert, sober lifeguards?

b) Some folks are able to hold their liquor really well; personally, I know there is a certain point in a party at which I still appear sober from the outside, but cultivating a creamy, booze-filled centre that is legally drunk. How is a host supposed to measure drunkenness in a guest that may appear stone cold sober? Will breathalyzers become a household accessory? Or will hosts need to resort to police tactics, and have guests touch their nose while reciting the alphabet backwards successfully before leaving?

c) What criminal acts will apply to this liability? What about a pissed-off sociopathic crank that shows up at a party, gets into an argument with another guest, ends up even more riled up, and then decides to vent by beating down the first person encountered on the walk home? Could hosts be asked to become responsible for any subsequent criminal behaviour that can even indirectly be linked back to the party?

d) There have been recent articles about studies that at a certain point, the tiredness that comes from even minor sleep deprivation can cause a state of incapacity that is the same as drunkenness. What about a party guest who stays until the bitter end, leaves sober, but has to get up for work the next morning in, say, four hours after leaving, and on the way to work the next day runs over a pedestrian. Will hosts become responsible for the sleep deprivation associated with their party?

e) If the Supreme Court does find the hosts responsible, what’s next? Will I become liable if, say, a delivery-person with an undisclosed peanut allergy arrives at my house, brushes up against the doorknob on which my child smeared a small amount of peanut butter, and shortly dies thereafter from shock?

This drive to up the ante on how legally responsible we are for our neighbours is a step towards the professionalization of our personal space, personal relationships, and personal time. We might be forced to become experts in biology, medicine, law, mediation, and social work, in an attempt to ensure that someone else’s actions don’t cause our own financial and legal ruin in the comforts of our own home, stealing the freedom to simply relax and enjoy life.