"Don't you see that killing me is not going to bring back your apples?"


Every action has consequences. A decision has a far reaching punch.

Yep. All those cliches. With power comes responsibility. But it's only responsibility if you care about it. It's only responsibility if you are accountable for your actions. Otherwise, it's simply power.

We've all made decisions that have hurt people. Some big, some small. I've probably broken a heart or two. I feel awful about that. I made decisions about people's careers that they have not appreciated. These are not decisions I take lightly or without significant warning.

What happens next? After the man walks out of the room with the news? There is a certain cruelty I suppose, in how you twist the knife.

Nobody sees what happens next. Certainly, nobody particularly cares outside of those affected.

Who cares if there is no actual sense in the events that are happening to the person most affected?

Who cares if the brain prods itself awake every night searching for an explanation that isn't there?

Who cares if the consequences are far beyond any percieved action? Who cares if you use a nuclear bomb to tame a cat?

Who cares about a Disproportionate Response, or Selective Enforcement for things that never actually happened? Who cares if it is only the Messenger that gets killed?

Who cares if a man has spent his whole life building a world to see if potentially be destroyed in less than six months?

Who cares if every minute, of every hour, of every day, in this one life we get could have been dismantled for something beyond their control or fault?

Who cares if, for example, the dream is destroyed forever? Who cares if someone may never own a home again? Who cares if a middle aged man has serious conversations with the people he should be looking after in his old age, and who cares if two pensioners put in a plan to help their son-in-law and for him to move-in to living in their back room?

Who cares about how it feels to have a timebomb ticking over your head? Who cares about what life is like knowing that everything is jeopardised? Who cares about how this looks on a CV? Who cares if your dreams and hopes and ambitions are turned to a bomb in front of your eyes, beyond your control, and for reasons that you have no influence over?

Who cares if someone has decided it is better to mask their failings and make someone else accountable rather than accept the facts? Who needs facts when you have ideas anyway?

Who cares if childrens lives are destroyed and paths changed forever by a decision that is nothing to do with them?

Who cares? Those with power but not responsibility don't. Make a decision. Walk away. Someone else has to deal with the consequences. Someone else has to live with the terror. Someone else has to live with the fear. Someone else has to live with the anger and the frustration. Someone else has to live with sleepless frantic nights. Someone else, and their wives, and their children, and their family, and their friends, and their world in the balance.

But it doesn't matter. It's only someone else's problem now.
- posted by Mark @ 8:42 am