Personal Responsibility

[tomsuelaw]

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Maybe it is because I live in Los Angeles, but it seems to me that the diving community is bigger on personal responsibility than the rest of society. Is my perception here wrong?

Bruce, thanks for pointing this out. I agree. I do believe many people in our society rely on everyone else (the government, companies, employers, neighbors) to be responsible for them. We Americans have become both spoiled and exploited by bad tort laws that have dictated all of society to be responsible except for the individual. It is ridiculous and as a staunch libertarian, I find the scuba safety world refreshing when it come to personal resposibility.

Oh and yes, living in the great nation of California, may be the "wrong corner of the world", you should move to a state where self-reliance and personal responsibility are appreciated and encouraged...like Texas. Maybe I will meet you there one day when I get sick of Ohio

 

[AfterDark]

Perhaps this is true, but after seeing some of the comments posted on this board, it makes me wonder if divers are not just another element of Society; filled with the same fears and insecurities as everyone else...

IMO the ones you describe are the type we oftenread about here in accidents and Incidents.

 

[alcadhrim]

This thread is very interesting. Particularly for a european fellow, as me, by the way I hope You'll accept apologizes for my english.
Because it is well known in french speaking countries that the american way-of-life in personnal responsability is strongly different than the ours.

The poor lady burned by this coffee had never had the idea of consulting a lawyer, and if she had make it, the lawyer has certainly said: "Don't do anything, you can't win." It may be curious but it is a fact.

I daresay I quite agree with the statement "We always find our community special" but in the particular case of Diving Society, it's our life and buddy life which is in question. And I think it makes the difference. For me.

But just one thing. I am a PADI diver. (Oh well, and what else...you surely think)
In Frenchspeaking Europe we're in minority and this way of diving too... And when I see other schools (now I do not mean Nauiour IDEA, SSI etc..., I mean National Federations) I feel this attitude (correct this one?) less frequent. If something goes wrong it's always the other one fault. What a pity. You see, I scheduled a dive and , my scheduled buddy was one of those guys. He refused the pre dive check saying "If you touch my gear and something goes wrong it will be your fault" Cool indeed, nice buddy. That day I finally found the shore very nice and I cancelled the dive. An I forgot the best, the guy very angry has yelled something like: "Now If you dive like an american"...

And what if I do? Where is the problem?
I said to him afterwards that I found my personnal responsability involved if I dived with him without any check.
And his conclusion was:"The responsability will be the one of the owner of the dive site - it is a reserved area).
I don't konw if you see what I mean. But this lack of responsability had make me very suspicious about diving with a buddy like that.

So, you see...Personnal responsability...I believe in it, but I can't say it is very frequent in my local diving community.

 

[OldNSalty]

Forgive me; I’m not sure what you are trying to say about Americans. I do think it odd that we tend to view ourselves and our history as being all about rugged individualism where rough and daring men set off into the wilderness to forge their own way and go it alone. Kind of the Cowboy mentality that the rest of the world hates. The truth is, while we may like to think of ourselves in this way and some of our history was made by people with this spirit, my observations as an American is that we really aren’t that way at all. We like to pretend like we are until something goes wrong and then we look around for someone else to blame. Rather sad really.

 

[alcadhrim]

Well that's I've thinking about: not very clear.

In short, I think the american way of dive seems very different from the european one. And I think, you community is far more responsible than the mine.

I hope it will be more clear ;-)

 

[OldNSalty]

Oh-I see now. Forgive me, it's still early here and it takes a few hours for my brain to kick in. Yes, most of the divers I have encountered tend to at least act as if they have some sence of personal responsibility. Never been to your fine corner of the globe so I will have to take your word for it.

 

[alcadhrim]

Halas, you can. :depressed:

 

[kjack_1]

Forgive me; I’m not sure what you are trying to say about Americans. I do think it odd that we tend to view ourselves and our history as being all about rugged individualism where rough and daring men set off into the wilderness to forge their own way and go it alone. Kind of the Cowboy mentality that the rest of the world hates. The truth is, while we may like to think of ourselves in this way and some of our history was made by people with this spirit, my observations as an American is that we really aren’t that way at all. We like to pretend like we are until something goes wrong and then we look around for someone else to blame. Rather sad really.

It's your fault!

<sorry - I couldn't resist>

 

[Jax]

Well that's I've thinking about: not very clear.

In short, I think the american way of dive seems very different from the european one. And I think, you community is far more responsible than the mine.

I hope it will be more clear ;-)

That is sad -- I understand now what you were saying, and I would also feel uncomfortable diving with someone so self-centered.

 

[CountrysideGirl]

I agree! We all need to accept personal responsibilty whether we are underwater or top-side! This seems to happen less and less! in our society!