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Teresa,
You wrote, “the only reason you're even able to criticise the former is because the car was stolen.”
This is not true. As I wrote to Jeffery, I’ve been thinking about this stuff for years. Prior to this news event, if you had asked me my thoughts on leaving a child in a running, unlocked car to run into the house, I would have said it was a bad idea because some fifteen-year-old will walk by and joyride the car. You don’t have to believe that, but it’s true.
You also wrote, “Your criticism of the mother is dependent on the actions of the thief, molester, gunman, etc., not on the actions of the mother.”
Yes, dependent in that without the criminal, nothing would have gone wrong in this case. But no, not dependent in the sense that I got the idea that it’s a bad idea from reading this news story. Rather, I got the idea that it’s a bad idea by thinking about it many, many times over the years.
Teresa, you seem to be hung-up on the thought that any criticism of her actions serves to lessen the thief’s criminal blame or to create some for her. I don’t believe that at all. Let me be perfectly clear. ALL of the criminal blame for what happened goes to the thief and her laxity should never be allowed as a defense at his trial.
I am interested in the issue of making good choices and flourishing. We don’t have the option of flourishing in a world without criminals—we’re stuck with struggling to flourish in this world, which includes bad people who will hurt us if they can. That we must sometimes modify our behavior in order to proof ourselves against those bad people certainly sucks, but in the interest of flourishing and not becoming their prey, we nevertheless should so modify our behavior.
Convenience might suggest that a woman put her purse down while she shops. Her decision not to do so because someone might steal it is no admission on her part that a thief would be right to steal it, or that she would be directly to blame should it get stolen. Rather, her decision not do so is a simple act of prudence, born of a desire to remain in custody of her purse. If she puts it down, and it gets stolen, and Jon criticizes her choice, then you really can’t say that Jon’s criticism is dependent on the theft actually occurring. Rather, the criticism is quite reality-based, and it is a valid criticism prior to, and even in the absence of, the purses’ eventual disappearance.
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