The blame game

This week in class we discussed how the best way to have power over someone is for them to think you do not have power over them at all and that they are making a decision all for themselves. We also learned about how when someone does something “bad” or “crazy” responsibility of the action can be shared amongst someone other than to doer of the action. We used the example of the Virginia Tech shootings to further think about the second point. In class we stated that that responsibility could be held on the people that Seung-Hui Cho reached out to and did nothing about. Since they knew about his tendency for violence and he never got this court appointed treatment for being mentally ill (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/06/AR2007050601403.html), why where these people in authority never put on the stand for letting this in a sense happen. If you know someone is dangerous why let him or her walk the streets without treatment? That is basically asking for trouble. I would normally say if someone did something that broke a law all blame should be placed on that person. But in a situation like this where someone is clearly mentally ill and he was supposed to receive treatment for it and he never got it, I feel like not only the doer of the action should be held responsible but also the people who sat by and basically waited for this ticking time-bomb to go off.  Someone was not doing his or her job and someone should have been punished for not giving him the help he needed. Granted, treatment may not have completely helped him or even prevented this from happening, but there was still a chance that this disaster could have been avoided if he got the help he had needed.