The Blame Game

Moreover, by fixing blame on individuals, complex failures and hard decisions can be missed or evaded. More unsettling explanations and wider culpability can be ignored. By blaming Mr Osborne for their poll dip, restive Tories can dodge the possibility that a collective lack of coherence or plausibility may lie behind their plight. Conversely, it may be comforting to claim that the incipient recession, and all its nasty consequences, are solely the fault of Gordon Brown—and not, say, of those thousands of homeowners who took out foolish mortgages that they are unable to service. So long as it’s someone else’s fault—the government or the schools or, increasingly, your genes—it isn’t your own.