Last week I was in a store doing some christmas shopping when someone knocked an item off a shelf which then shattered on the floor. A sales representative was sent to the scene of the accident and said out loud in a tired voice “Who did this? Come on now, all we wanted you to do was apologize. It’s ok, accidents happen.” Even now I can’t help but think that was an attempt to get a confession so that they could make someone pay. Why? Because mistakes are punished so harshly by our culture. Admitting to a mistake is an act of humility requiring a certain level of maturity beyond what most people in our culture reach. Add to that the lack of forgiveness exhibited by our culture, its boundless joy in punishing those who make mistakes (well, punishment period), and it’s no wonder no one admitted to having knocked that item off the shelf. I sure wouldn’t have.
So what does it mean when a culture punishes mistakes like ours does? It means that people will do all they can do prevent making mistakes (or at least give the illusion that they do not make mistakes). It means people will lie about having made mistakes, no matter how small, because it’s not socially acceptable. This attitude discourages innovation becuase it means people will decide that trying new things and experimentation aren’t worth the chance that they will make a mistake. In short, it scares people into inaction.
Another extension of this that I noticed yesterday, while playing my brothers new Wii, was golf. Golf is, aside from being an ecocidal activity, a sport where your every mistake is punished, so the people who take it seriously must like being punished, right? Well, some might. Others might not like being punished, but they might really love not making mistakes while others are punished for making mistakes. In a social group where not making even the smallest mistake is a virtue but getting things done is also a virtue, golf would be a really popular sport. What sadistic social group is that? Why, the managers and bosses of the world, of course.
