The Blame Game

I once read about an interesting distinction made by American sociologist Harvey Sacks between two types of consequences for actions. Class 1 consequences are effects that naturally result from an action, for example, if you put your hand in the fire, you will get burned. Class 2 consequences are those that require the action of another human being, for example, if you murder someone, then you go to jail. You don't automatically get teleported to jail as soon as you pull the trigger. Someone has to put you there. This is very different from Class 1 consequences which are a direct result of your action. Human adults can tell the difference between the two, but children can't. That's why, when they're young enough, children don't bear grudges against their parents when they are punished, because to them the punishment is a Class 1 consequence of their actions, i.e. it could not have been avoided. The parent didn't CHOOSE to punish the child. A child then wouldn't hate his parent for spanking them in much the same way that an adult wouldn't hate a candle for burning him.

So what does all that have to do with anything? Well, it seems to me that it isn't only children that don't understand this distinction. A few days ago, Israeli president Shimon Peres made a statement about the threat Hezbollah poses to Lebanon. During a speech he said, "It's not Israel that is endangering Lebanon, but rather Hezbollah, just as Hamas is endangering the Palestinians." This is not the first time this type of talking point is used by an Israeli politician. Several times in the past the Israelis have attempted to get the Lebanese to turn against Hezbollah by convincing them that latter's actions lead to the destruction of Lebanon, as though they, the Israelis, have nothing to do with it. Now I don't know if Mr. Peres actually believes this to be true, or if he just says it hoping people are naive enough to accept it. To him, when Israel deals out death and destruction to its enemies, it is merely a direct consequence of Hezbollah (or Hamas) action. But we are not children, and while we may understand that Hezbollah's actions are what instigated a war to start with, we are old enough to realize that the individual atrocities committed by the IDF are not natural and unavoidable consequences of Hezbollah's behavior, but are rather Israeli actions implementing Israeli decisions.

So the whole "the Lebanese should understand that Hezbollah is their enemy, not Israel" paradigm doesn't work on rational adults. Sure it might make us dislike Hezbollah, but it makes us deeply despise Israel far more. After all, if some guy walks up to you and shoots you in the leg, you might blame the guy who provoked him, and you might even get pissed off at the guy who made the gun, but the person you're gonna hate the most and seek revenge against is the one who pulled the trigger.