I think about this topic quite a bit, because I am someone who often waxes nostalgic, specifically for things I never personally experienced—the term is anemoia, coined by John Koenig and describes a bittersweet yearning for a bygone world or historical era—and I long for an America that was radically free, where people took radical ownership over their own lives and choices.
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Litigiousness has absolutely ruined this country. Not only has this trend manifested in the obvious destruction of freedom (freedom we probably almost can’t comprehend at this point in time), but it has made a people incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions, a population that rejects the very ideals upon which our nation was founded: radical sovereignty, independence, and individualism.
The thought really struck me a few years back, when I was on a school field trip with my youngest son, who was in kindergarten at the time. We went to some family farm pumpkin patch in rural Alabama, where the farmer allowed the kids to jump out of the second story loft of the barn, onto a pile of hay/straw underneath. The stairs up were rickety, there was no railing at the top, and no one from the farm was directing the kids to wait some crazy amount of time to make sure the hay pile was empty. There wasn’t even a waiver to sign: a lawyer would have a heyday with this place.
It was a little fast and loose with “safety” as we understand it in the modern sense, but it was wildly fun for the kids. My thought? At some point, some little kid is going to break her arm, and the farmer is going to get sued and possibly lose everything he’s worked for his whole life. All because he opened up his property and allowed kids to play in the same way he no doubt did as a child himself, with the consent of those kids’ parents—including me.
The way I see it is this: If I as a parent had a problem with it, then it’s on me to tell my son no. If he gets hurt while jumping? Then I guess I’ve got a medical bill to pay, and maybe I do things differently in the future. Or maybe not, and I accept that freedom and fun things often come with bumps and bruises and broken bones.
I was reminded today though about the endless litigation while searching the news and getting acquainted with current events: Charlie Kirk’s family is apparently readying to sue the university where he was killed for alleged security failures, and some woman is suing her employer hospital after she was attacked and beaten by a crazed patient.
This is in no way to suggest that Kirk is to blame for his own horrific murder, or the nurse is to blame for suffering a violent beatdown, but the offending parties aren’t the university or the hospital, respectively—the offending parties are without a doubt whoever pulled the trigger and killed Kirk, and the man who punched and kicked the nurse at the hospital. This also isn’t to suggest that the university or hospital in these two cases don’t play any role in the things that occurred, but lawsuits? It’s only justified because we live in a grossly litigious world, and I despise the spirit of litigiousness.
Kirk consented to participate in a campus talk without proper security. That should have been a no-go. The family accuses the university of failing to fly drones—but why didn’t Kirk’s own security team do that? Again, not blaming Kirk for his own murder in any way, but simply pointing out I can’t see how the public university, aka the taxpayers, should be on the financial hook because Kirk freely consented to participate in what the university was offering. The killer? He should be sued, and when he can’t fork over the money a court would award the Kirk family because he’s just some broke kid from Utah? That’s just the way it goes.
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The nurse complains there wasn’t adequate security; but if she felt that way, then why not work somewhere else? No one made her take a job there, did they? She’s not a slave; she went seeking employment and took a job offer from the hospital.
We can’t restore American greatness if every time something bad happens to us, we turn around and look for someone else to blame, hire a lawyer, and sue for millions. We can only restore American resilience and strength if we take radical responsibility for our own lives, and accept that bad things happen to everyone, to varying degrees, and that’s just the way it goes.
When the frontiersman weighed the risk of settling land filled with Indians, some of them wound up hacked to death and scalped, their wives and children included. Their families didn’t get to sue the U.S. government (ergo the taxpayers) for opening the door to homesteading in hostile territories.
When the members of the Donner party chose the wrong path and ended up dying of starvation and disease, they didn’t sue a wagon company because their wagon wheels broke, or a farmer who sold them subpar cattle and horses, they just died miserable deaths, and that’s just the way it goes.
When Stonewall Jackson got shot by his own men, a situation that resulted in the amputation of his arm and his subsequent death, his widow didn’t come after the Confederate government with a wrongful death suit. Jackson’s end was tragic and avoidable, but he made the decision to fight in the war and ride past the Confederate frontline at night.
Again, this opinion is probably unpalatable to the modern person, but my anemoia is strong today, and I long for an America where you could actually be wildly free, without the endless threat of lawsuits hanging like a Damocles sword above our heads.
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