The lack of accepting responsibility for one's action is becoming an epidemic

[PZ]

I was enjoying a few appetizers and a glass of wine at Bookwalter winery in Richland about a week ago and experienced this:

An old woman (60-ish) came into the building and went immediately to the nearest server saying "I just hit a rock". Curiosity piqued my interest with such a comment so I listened in while she explained that she was parking her car, drove too far forward, and hit one of the landscaping rocks, causing damage to her vehicle.  The young server did not know what to say but went to get the manager.  Meanwhile, the old woman was there to meet friends and they all clucked like hens offering their phones for pictures, etc., completely siding with the old fool who evidently thinks the rock jumped out in front of her car.

When the manager came out, they all dutifully marched out to the car and began snapping pictures of the damage, the rock, and anything remotely of interest - I felt like I was watching a forensics crew.

When my server returned to my table, I told him that I hoped that they would not take the old fool seriously, and he grinned exclaiming that he was glad he was not the only one to notice the outrageous expectation.

Here she is, an old idiot driver who thinks that anything bad happening in her life is someone else's fault, and that anyone except her is fiscally responsible.

What an entitled idiot.

[fragger]

  Cor...

That's so typical. Anything bad that befalls anyone these days is someone else's fault. You can get pissed, try to plank on a third-floor balcony railing, fall off and injure yourself, then try to sue the architect of the building for making the drop from the balcony high enough to hurt ::)

Hell, if I trip over a crack in the sidewalk I berate myself for being a klutz. I must have been born without a blameshift gene.

[mandru]

 ::)

[Stiku]

High heels and icy road, Its got to be the cities fault.  :D

[nexor]

You guys ain't seen nothing yet, come to South Africa and experience the mentality of the new found South Africans.
Everything and I mean everything they don't like gets blamed on someone or something else.

[mandru]

Oh!  :o

Is that where President Oblaimer gets it?

[Art Blade]

If that old lady had hit a rock over here telling the server about it, everyone here would have called the police trying to make her pay for whatever damage to the rock they could possibly find and anything remotely related. Weird.

[Stiku]

I spent 3wks last month, just outskirts of Berlin, and people were as salty and "not my fault" there than rest of the world.

[nexor]

Oh!  :o

Is that where President Oblaimer gets it?

Well, we must remember, his farther was born in Kenya.......???

[mandru]

That was my point Nex.  ;)


Out of curiosity PZ.  ????

If that carefully placed landscape rock hadn't been there would she have smashed on through into the public area where you were enjoying your "appetizers and glass of wine?"

Often the underlying function when businesses strategically uses boulders as part of their landscaping decor is to stop drivers for causing any real damage.

Being 60ish myself I can fairly say that it would be perfectly acceptable for the manager there at Bookwalter winery to say to her "If you can't avoid jumping a curb and hitting a rock a few glasses of wine is the last thing you'll be getting from us!"

[PZ]

Being 60ish myself I can fairly say that it would be perfectly acceptable for the manager there at Bookwalter winery to say to her "If you can't avoid jumping a curb and hitting a rock a few glasses of wine is the last thing you'll be getting from us!"

:-X

You are indeed correct in your assumption regarding the rock placement, mandru.  It was intended as a curb of sorts to prevent driving onto the landscape.  The old woman was of course driving one of those ridiculous cross-over SUVs - the kind that incompetent drivers purchase so they feel safer.  Unfortunately for her, she simply wasn't paying attention - probably texting or talking on her phone.

Naturally that makes it someone else's fault.

[mandru]

 :)

[Art Blade]

nice, mandru and PZ  :)

[fragger]

Yep