Not passing the buck

I had occasion to think about ego as I watched my alma mater get decisively, thoroughly, unforgettably demolished by a superior team this weekend in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. "They're not even trying," I grumbled as the players were repeatedly beaten at both ends of the floor. They had become other people. Had they won, I would have felt as if I were part of something wonderful. It would have been, in a way, my victory too. But when it became clear that they are not as good as I thought, I distanced myself from them.

A reasonable person would note that I have no claim on this team's victories or defeats. A fair person would note that if I am going to exult in their triumphs, I ought to eat crow when they lose. But sinful machine that it is, my heart is with them when they win, and separate from them when they fail.

I saw a study a few years back that examined the annual reports of top U.S. companies. The researchers found that when a company did well, the top executives tended to use language that signaled their responsibility for its success: Our investments are yielding a substantial return; We are capturing this emerging market; Our superior performance has placed us first in class...

When a company did poorly, however, executives were much more likely to blame the outcome on other factors: Market conditions were unpredictable; The economy entered a slowdown. Sometimes I wonder if the biggest threat to capitalism isn't that Capitalists are so prone to running their mouths.

But it's not just corporate titans; we've all seen the same thing in our jobs, our various associations, even our churches. As John F. Kennedy quipped, "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." It's our nature, it seems, to claim credit for success, and avoid blame for failure, which is a human feature that Adam modeled from the beginning ("The woman you gave me, Lord...").

I wonder what the world would look like if more of us gave credit for success to others -- and really meant it. And what would it be like if more of us accepted responsibility for our actions, without excuse, and then set about trying to make amends?

We'll get no guidance from the bulk of our political and entertainment celebrities (and really, is there much difference?). This is because we've gone from "The buck stops here" to "Drugs/alcohol/stress made me do this and now I'm going to an exclusive rehabilitation/resort setting until my pollsters and publicist tell me it's safe to emerge."

But then I like to think we can do better than these people, don't you?