It’s Not Your Fault You Must Find Fault

The greatest goodness you can practice
Is to never seek someone to blame,
But no human can resist that lust,

And the first response, almost always,
Is, Yes, but some people are to blame.
And then the examples, in a rush,

Beginning with the most egregious,
History’s genocidal tyrants,
Psychopathic serial killers,

Traitors, swindlers, ruthlessly scheming,
Amoral amassers of fortunes,
The architects of surveillance states,

And so on and so forth, all the fat
Volumes weighing down the shelves of whole
Libraries of the notorious.

Open and shut. But what about cause?
Doesn’t it strike you that Genghis Khan
And Stalin retain their admirers?

Or that often your blame encompasses
Heterogeneous populations
Packaged under a single label?

The Nazis, the Commies, the racists,
The fundies, the atheists, the Jews?
Maybe you believe in causation,

Responsibility, and free will,
Since you need them to justify blame.
If no one’s truly responsible,

No one freely chose, then you’re denied
The cold comfort of blame. Underneath
The surface of much metaphysics

And many moral arguments lies
The desire to protect the access
To justifiable indulgence

In blame. The philosophy follows
The lust it allows. Even knowing
As much won’t help you, though. You’ll remain

A social creature evolved to use
Blame as a means to do well in groups.
The greatest goodness will elude you.