11 Why Do We Blame?

One important question is as yet unaddressed. And I don't even know if we can ever find an answer. But I do want to give it a try here, as it is a concern at the heart of a just culture. The question is this: Why do we want to blame individuals for failures of our systems?

We can easily glide into the idea that it is all about power. That some people or organizations or institutions have their own material goods or reputations to protect and will sacrifice individual operators in order to do so. This suggests that protection of vested elite interests is the reason why some people's actions are converted into culpable ones, into crimes or otherwise sanctionable acts. The reason for unjust responses to failure, in that idea, ...

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