From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:09:27 -0500
Subject: [OT] Potpourri: Responsibility, Paintball, List Seniority
Alan B said:
"Responsible for" implies "involved in" - though not the converse. That
is you may be powerless to alter a situation, but you're still involved. But
you can easily be involved in something without being responsible for it.
Typically, innocent bystanders, people hit by drunken drivers etc.
[Tomb] I think you're talking about causation (by saying responsible
for, you mean "a cause of" or "contributing as a cause of"). Responsibility to
my mind usually means who has to deal with the results. There are many times
I've been responsible for something that I had no hand in creating ("here, you
fix this"). I was "involved" later on in the project, and then made
responsible. Responsibility is (to my thinking) about accountability. You are
responsible for a thing if you can be called to account for a failure or
problem with it or its application. Who is to blame and who is responsible are
two very different questions for me. I think many folks who blame society for
their problems don't assume personal responsibility - they say "but I
had a bad upbringing or bad breaks". This is possibly true, but it says
_nothing_ to responsibility. Responsibility is "who's going to clean
this up? On whose head does a failure fall? Who will deal with the
aftermath?". It doesn't address causation. But that's only my 0.02. As far as
defence projects go, the ones I worked on were of the benign variety (teaching
air navs, etc) rather than the more malign (blowing people up). Although if
one of those air navs gives bad direction and a plane augers in, I have some
very minute degree of association and causation to acknowledge.
Paintball: Paintball is (mostly) an outdoor sport and a bit dangerous as a
direct consequence. OTOH, on a well run field with tight refereeing and
administration (gun checks, using only good new paint, following strict
googling rules, etc), it is a minimally risky prospect and waaaaaaay
fun. Paintballs sting, but if you are wearing more than a T-shirt, they
don't tend to do much actual damage. I usually wore a combat shirt (fall
weight) over a T-shirt and a set of combat pants. And webgear. Most of
the time, I didn't even get much in the way of a welt. (One exception was 16
welts at point blank in the back, but I dug my own hole there.... damn 12
gram.... pagewire fencing.... stupid me....).
List Seniority: I was on the old bolton list and I'm sure I must have joined
in 1996 sometime. I'd have thought early on. I should see if I can find my
original mail archive.... (of course, I doubt I have the mailer to find it).
It has been a long, mostly excellent, run with this list and this wonderful
community and I've made a lot of wonderful friends!
Goose Green:
> From what I understand, the Paras were pinned and the Col. was trying