Personal responsibility

[cjsmith]

Well spoken.

"Have to" is almost always shorthand for "have to or else [consequence]". I think we as a culture are getting seduced by the shorthand, and we're beginning to think that we don't have a lot of the choices we really do have.

"Was forced to" is a particularly advanced form of this shorthand. The consequence is not only unstated but usually not possible to figure out from the content of the message. The subtext is that the actual consequence itself doesn't matter. Any bad consequence at all is enough to forgive the action.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I think this effect can be countered for ourselves as individuals (partially countered, that is, maybe not ever entirely) by being careful about how we ourselves use words.

I try. I'm probably not very good at it. :-)

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Yes, precisely! I think it's *very* hard to get over the preconceptions that come packaged with our language. First, you have to recognize that they're *there*!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes. That recognition takes either a heckuva lot of introspection (and good introspection, which is hard to begin with (a lifetime of meditation, maybe?)) or learning a bunch of other languages that have different preconceptions... and I bet either method could take multiple lifetimes to complete.

Watching how language use changes around you is a good handle on the evolving or new preconceptions, too. (I see "have to"-shorthand as being on the rise. Either that or I've started to hang out with people who are more strongly infected than the people I used to hang out with.)

Anyway, I'm sure glad I don't have to finish the task before getting any benefit out of it. :-)

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Yep. What you said.

You know, I love it when you and I are awake at the same time!!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

So do I! I love these conversations!