Stop ‘buck-passing’
In an imperfect world of survival to protect oneself from discomfort brought by mistakes, accidents, or any life misfortunes which are not in the way we hope, the default reaction is to blame somebody or something else.
A man, for example, leisurely biking in a neighborhood hits a five-foot garbage bin and got stalled amid scattered trash on the sidewalk. He rises and brushes trash particles off his clothes while ranting about where his taxes are spent and the inefficiency of the local government’s garbage management office.
Instead of accepting his role in the mishap, realizing his clumsiness, or promising to learn from his mistakes of either cycling too fast or not looking where he was going, he blames almost everyone he can think of except himself.
Just like the New Year’s day airport power outage that shut down the Philippine airspace, inconvenienced 65,000 domestic and foreign passengers, grounded more than 300 flights, and brought embarrassment to the country in the eyes of the world.
It’s a classic example of passing the buck that stemmed from ineptitude — if that is even a mistake.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines initially admitted that the country’s air traffic management system is outdated, blaming former Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade for diverting P13 billion in funds for the backup of air traffic control systems – an allegation denied by Tugade.
He said no diversion happened because the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management or CNS/ ATM project, which was completed in 2019, was under a loan-fundedproject supervised by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and money never went to them.
It turned out that one of the cooling blowers of the CNS/ATM failed because the uninterruptible power supply of the commercial power supply did not function. Failure number 3 is the switching to the use of backup power through a generator also failed after the second UPS malfunctioned.
The blame game stopped during Thursday’s Senate Committee on Public Services’ inquiry when CAAP took responsibility for the airport fiasco due to a technical glitch.
Blaming others, according to psychologists, leads to several unhelpful emotions, such as resentment, anger, and hatred. Blaming is only for negative behaviors, thoughts, and feelings.
Seldom do we meet people who blame others for the good things that happen in their lives. I must say they are endangered species.
Lamentably, blaming others disempowers us to change and grow. It places us in a superior seat making us appear to be the ‘good guys’ versus the blame recipients as the ‘bad’.
In author and poet Gillian Duce’s view, “You do not blame your shadow for the shape of your body: Just the same: Do not blame others for the shape of your experience.”
It doesn’t hurt to consider these five ways to skip the blame game from writer Gustavo Razzetti:
1. Recognize when you are blaming. Awareness is always the first step;
2. Self-blaming is good. It’s better to take ownership than to blame others;
3. Be empathetic, not judgmental. Focus on understanding the other person; and
4. Don’t let the problem blind you.
With still 352 days in 2023, let us kick the disastrous blame game habit for “how can we learn to do things better if we refuse to accept the mistakes we made”.
“Seldom do we meet people who blame others for the good things that happen in their lives.
“It’s
a classic example of passing the buck that stemmed from ineptitude — if that is even a mistake.