Padded Room Syndrome

The problem with Amerkuh... one of the problems with Amerkuh... is our litigiousness which has spiraled out of control in recent decades. Everyone thinks they are owed something. That paychecks naturally follow unfortunate incidents.

The real downside is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-sustaining feedback loop fueled by law schools and kept swirling by us. It goes like this.

1. One... Companies and individuals fear lawsuits and hire a caudry of lawyers to help them with CYA policies and insurance protection.
2. Two... A freak accident occurs.
3. Three... The company is sued. No one really feels the hit as insurance quietly pays.
4. Four... Thousands of these scenarios begat more concern over lawsuits. Go to 1.

No one in this scenario is acting as an irrational agent. Everyone is acting in their best interest at every step.

So how do you break the cycle? The only way to slay the beast is between 2 and 3. And it requires changing the way Americans think as jurors, not as plaintiffs. Self-serving plaintiffs will always be. The key is the altering collective cultural view on personal responsibility.

Back in "the day", let's just say the 1950s and before, people went around with the assumption, in fact the realization, that the world around them was dangerous. It was their responsbility as the planet's most intelligent and most evolved creature to employ all of their faculties to ascertain the potential perils of a situation and act accordingly.

Then somewhere along the line that began to change. It was a blurry line that stretched from the 1960s through the 1980s, during which a phenomenon I've dubbed "Padded Room Syndrome" (PRS) was born. Affecting children most strongly, PRS is the result of coming of age imbued with the idea that something simply can't be dangerous or bad for me because "they" wouldn't be letting it happen if it were.

Surely this coffee wouldn't be too hot, this window glass too weak, this substance too toxic... surely they wouldn't let them serve this, intall this, sell this. Someone is watching... watching over things, governing and checking. Someone is insuring that no matter how I use this product, even well beyond the reasonable limits of its intended use, there won't be *gasp* consequences.

Armed with this knowledge we become free to bounce around the our environment, hurling ourselves at railings and stuffing crayons into our mouths, using the world as hard as we can, free and fearless and unable to harm ourselves... like a mental patient... in a padded room.

Rather suddenly, and for the first time in human history, protective responsibility was shifted away from the individual and onto governments, businesses, and organizations. Society itself. No "It Takes a Village". Rather, a "Village Takes It In the A*$!".

And thousands of lives were saved.

But at what price. The cost of improved corporate citizenship, government accountability, and a safer world for our children is reality of our situation today... a cripplingly litigious society that has helped bring the efficiency and the boldness of our country to its knees in an era of globalization when it is so desperately important that we are efficient and bold.