Do you feel in anyway culpable?

Question

For any negative consequences from policies you support or reject (denying them any hypothetically good potential), even if you can't be certain of the cause and effect, yet believe it plausible that 'b' did, indeed, followed 'a'?

For a real example: If you are for leaving Iraq, do you have any culpability for the situation becoming, if it does, worse?

If you are for staying in Iraq; same question applies.

As for me, I lean toward leaving Iraq, and I think I bear come culpability if things get worse then on.

What do you believe?

I do have a guilt complex, but I don't know if it's in affect here.

Answer 1

very interesting question. If you support something then yes in my mind you have som responsibility for what happens when the actions are put into action. Interestingly enough most people don't want to be held accountable for the consequences of their decisions. If we choose say to leave Iraq as you suggested and we support this and things get worse then we who support this hold some form of accountability to this. If we stay and things get worse there again we hold some accountability there as well. Most people would like to pass the buck and say it was government fault but who elects the people in government us. OK maybe I am way off base here. (granted there are times are government goes against what we the people want in this case then we are no longer held accountable but those that made the decision without our giving the OK then we are not accountable for that the people that made that decision are.

Answer 2

Straying away from the original noise. You are absolutely culpable for everything you do in your own life/mind. You are clearly interested social control systems. Religion is the strongest. Why kill other people for you own opinions? Why worry about your own actions.? You need to consider the possibility that you are indoctrinated! You are only ultimately culpable if you give a sh*t or somebody is gonna kill you. Once you consider it fully you will realise how you are controlled and how much power you really have as an individual. If everybody (expendable) said no 'f' you I'm not fighting to keep ''you'' in a cosy living style - How long do you think people would have a choice? Then we would see if democracy really exists! A bit stark but what hoh!

Answer 3

You can bet your bippy that, whether you feel culpable or not, since you live in a republic, the majority of the citizens in the nations affected ABSOLUTELY hold you personally responsible.

If we stay in Iraq, the Kurds will love us.

If we leave Iraq, the Shias and Sunnis may not love us, because they will be too busy slaughtering each other. That is, unless both Shia and Sunni decide to slaughter the Kurds first before starting in on each other.

Answer 4

You may be right, if you support something you should definitely feel that you bear some responsibilities for its failures, as you would probably let people know that you supported it if it succeeds. However, your culpability would be only be as large as the input you have. As a normal citizen of the US, you would not be that influential in the decision and so therefore you cannot take much credit for the success or failure of American foreign policy.

Answer 5

thanks for the snack... your ? was definitely food for thought

As the vote wasn't put to us as to whether or not to go to war, no one of us directly contributed to our being there

but we ARE there... so way I understand what you are asking is that if the yahoos that make our decisions for us decide that we are still to be there, does the fact that in my head I support the war make me culpable? shoooo, even if I held a pro-war rally,that wouldn't make me culpable... just a dumbass...

if we check for the root of things, the decision we made to vote them into office is what we are responsible for... does it make me feel guilty that I voted for Bush? IMHO it was dumb vs dumber and at least he was the evil I already knew

do I think that things would have played out differently if we'd voted Kerry in? perhaps it coulda been even worser, yanno? or should I consider feeling culpable that I didn't vote for Kerry? I don't

it sounds to me like you are assuming undue guilt here... I mean, come on, you are talking about your thoughts, man... even if you campaigned for the war, how can your mere thoughts (even if they are deeply rooted convictions) affect anything??

Guilt is something we lay on ourselves, dude... you can feel badly that something isn't moving along in a healthful direction but guilty?

s'one thing if someone else was sending you on a guilt trip and you decided to take the ride.... but you are doing this to yourself...

and we can't know if to stay or to go is the better choice til history is written... you can't follow a thought to a logical conclusion when the original thought process was flawed... even when the logic is solid, there are still variables that can swing things in a different direction than we project... I think, at this point, the way to draw that conclusion is to weigh the pros and cons of both choices but again, we won't be doing the weighing... we already voted the weighers and their flunkies into office

I think the only folks that need to feel bad are those that don't keep up with the issues that affect all Americans as a whole, that don't exercise their right to vote... if all of us accepted that freedom comes with a responsibility and that responsibility is that we are, all of us, every single danged one of us, responsible for who is in office, we would be better off... I think then perhaps people with appropriate leadership qualities and knowledge might agree to run... it might take years, decades even, but if it could ever happen, that everyone lived up to their responsibilities, things would seriously get better........

one of my fantasies is cleaning house from the top down and starting all over... so much corruption and hidden spending, unbefitting shenanigans, favor doing... imagine the world if all of us were proud and proactive about being American ahhhhhhh!

much of the the world views the US now as bullies who have undertaken to make the rest of the world as miserable as we are... We are a nation of excess and instant gratification... precious little morals, values and ethics... so many abdicate their responsibilities to raising kids to care about each other, civics, the environment, famine and drought, civil strife in developing countries... if we want to be viewed as the world power we deserve to be, we need to be role-models, not bullies

I am worried indeed that we are going to hell in a handbasket... sadly, lately, I am not totally proud of being an American

Answer 6

Hegelian view...
humans too often,presumptously, assume causality in that their perceptions of A---> B, while the reality of the relationship might easily be A-->Z-->Y-->X--> n terms--> B
it is only our perception of causality, not in fact, necessarily real

limited human understanding, perception and / or chaos theory are equal explanations of a perceived causality...

ergo, NO culpability

Answer 7

If by leaving Iraq you mean....getting out of the 'war'. Then no you will not worsen the situation instead you will better it.

Answer 8

i think you raise an interesting point....we should all feel somewhat culpable for all the decisions we make/support. especially concerning issues that deal with life and death.

Answer 9

Maybe you suffer from a guilt complex.

Answer 10

No I don't feel responsible at all. I had no say in what was done. I would have voted to convert the region into a glass roller-rink.