Johnny Did It!

There is a common practice perhaps as old as human nature – and perhaps as prevalent. When things go wrong, someone usually blames someone else. Every parent has had the experience of correcting a child who immediately protests that he didn’t start it – “Johnny did.” This may be only a childhood phase, but the practice of blaming everything onto someone else may become a matter of much concern when it carries over into more serious considerations.

When things go wrong in the planning of a crime, for example, we see the spectacle of former partners in crime accusing each other. The drunkard blames those who offer him a drink. Some blame the company they keep for failures that befall them, which may have a measure of truth in it – but why keep such company? When things go wrong publically we often see people in various positions, calling names and pointing fingers, each blaming others in the hope of keeping public criticism from falling upon himself.

But this business of scapegoat hunting goes further than this. All through the centuries men have been inclined to blame the devil for many things for which they, themselves, are perhaps sometimes personally responsible. They didn’t need all that help. They did it all themselves. And Pilate was neither the first nor the last man who has unsuccessfully attempted to wash his hands in public for something with which he didn’t want his mane to be associated.

And so the search for all scapegoats goes on, as men try to avoid responsibility for their own mistakes and faults. But at that day when all shall stand before the bar of judgment, perhaps one of the most interesting things to observe will be the discounting of excuses, and the fixing of responsibility where it really belongs. But even then it would not be surprising if the devil himself could look around for someone else to sacrifice.

The price of life, the price of privilege and position is to face up to facts, to be responsible for what goes right – or wrong, and not always trying to absolve ourselves by saying: “Johnny did it!”