I Want to Sue Cindy Crawford For My Lack of Self Esteem, and the Internet, for Making Me Less Productive

Before this, people sued Macdonalds for making them fat. Because their clever ads and 'delicious' food tempted people beyond reasonable control to upsize their meal and have it three times a day.

Now, someone is suing iPod for hearing problems. He alleges "the sound produced by an iPod can exceed 115 decibels, a volume which is dangerous to be exposed to for more than 28 seconds."

So turn the damm thing lower! Would you knowingly and eagerly run to a job site and put your ear next to the drill just to see how long it takes before your eardrums explode? iPod didn't force you to turn the dial until you hit the loudest volume. Any decent coherent human being knows that excessive loud noise over a period of time results in hearing damage. Not rocket science.

This made me think about the whole "blame others" society we now live in. Low self esteem? Blame your harsh back-beating parents. Spoiled brat? Blame your stifling moddle-coddling parents. Don't know the multiplication table at age 21? Blame your school. Have no creative spark? Blame the Singapore education system. Fat, poor and broke? Blame your credit card company. Don't like to walk on grass and drink from an outdoor water cooler? Blame my government. Or that is me at least.

Is this the result of the new eternal adolescent society? Where 18 year olds still let their mum wash their socks, 22 year olds are still in school on parental support, 26 year olds still live with their parents, 35 year olds are still wondering what they want to do in life and 40 year olds are still picking up at bars. Play stations, simple to read chick lit that has the vocab of sweet valley high, and toys for adults that we call vintage collectables. This has replaced being drafted for war at 17, getting married at 16 and child labour at 12. At least in the developed world.

Without responsibility, we find no need to be responsible. And part of being responsible and an adult, is realising you can't run up to your friend's parents and complain that they bullied you in school. The day I realised that I freaked out.

So we continue to assign blame, so that we can assign responsibility on others for our lives. People assign fast food companies responsibility for our health. People assign TV stations responsibility for baby sitting their children. People assign the government responsibility for keeping the roads safe. And when something wrong happens, we blame our city councils. In the past, people grab pitch forks and fire and hunt the bloody thing down. Of course nowadays, that is illegal.

Maybe it is all in the evolution of society. In olden times, people trusted the Church. Then they trusted their government. And now with the possibility of suing every Tom, Dick and Harry that made us overweight and deaf, we have put our trust in corporations and companies to handle our lives for us.