Industrial Mommy-ism

That is an expression I learned in college as it relates to “the world owes me a living and if I do something wrong, I do not have to be responsible for my actions as someone else will take care of me."

Where did we get to this stage in our development of a society that we are no longer responsible for our own actions? I just don’t understand that concept. Dad used to say, “You caused the situation, it’s nobody’s fault but your own, so fix it!"

Back in the 1990’s, my mother, Nora Hauswirth, let me know she was going to go to Florida by herself to stay with some lady friends who live in Fort Lauderdale. She was in her 70’s at the time. She even went so far as to call a limo service to take her to the airport. I offered to drive her but if anyone remembers my mom, she was “Irish Stubborn”!!! So she gets to the airport and while waiting for the driver to get her bags and calling for a porter, she tripped and fell over the curb, breaking the bone in her shoulder.

No fewer than four people (including the ambulance driver) were slipping her phone numbers of law firms telling her she should sue for her injuries. By the time I made it to the hospital in Newark, she was stable and terribly annoyed at herself for being so clumsy! By then even a nurse in the emergency room was touting the expertise of a local law firm that would get her a huge settlement. Her response was typical of my mother: “It was my fault and not that of the curb or its construction, Period!!”

We see it all the time, the lady spilling coffee on herself in a drive-thru and the lifetime smoker who blames the tobacco company for getting lung cancer. Neither feels that they were responsible for their actions and want to be compensated for their own stupidity. But, fear not, society has hit us with yet another mind-boggling moron!

Enter Tennessee resident and “former” lawyer Chris Sevier, who is suing Apple, Inc. because his Apple computer led him to become an online pornography addict. The poor guy “accidentally” found some adult sites that “appealed to his biological sensibilities as a male and led to an unwanted addiction with adverse consequences.” In addition to this “addiction” that has given Mr. Sevier unrestricted access to porn on the internet, he feels that Apple is hurting the “Mom and Pop” local porn shops by giving away pornographic materials on the internet for free.

Apple has not responded yet to the suit. I’m thinking they can’t stop laughing and neither has Dell, HP, INTEL or IBM.