The sun burns, the moon orbits the Earth, the rains fall, the comets whoosh and all on some unseen impetus. The driving force of these and all celestial actions had a moment that could be summated as a push, a finger flick or even a big bang. Causation is an interesting subject best suited to the skills of Columbo, Perry Mason and Inspector Clouseau.
Tracing an observed phenomena back to its cause can be tricky work. Courtrooms are filled with evidence, or so one would think, that are presented as the proof of actions that took place in order to get the specific action (crime) understood and assign causation and put a face on it.
The most difficult of causes to discover is the missing cause. An action that had it been taken could have prevented some result. ex. You are sitting poolside sipping a cool drink. You observe a mom with a child and see that she too is sipping a drink and talking loudly to her deck chair neighbor. Meanwhile the young child crawls away toward the pool's edge. You sip away and do nothing. That missing action results in glug glug a drown child. Unless the inactive witness says something, his inaction will go unknown and causation becomes a “terrible; freakish accident”.
Accidents happens. They are by definition not on purpose and not guided but intentional action. But isn't intentional inaction in the face of readily predictable results also caused? I think so.
In the example, the man sipping his drink and not acting upon what was easily predictable (the child going into the pool and drowning) was being irresponsible. Responsibility is an important aspect of causation. Who is responsible determines wrongful harm lawsuits etc., so it is a long recognized legal and moral question.
Our world is a massive caldron of interactivities, some with intent and some accidental. On a day to day basis, we attempt to act purposefully, predict outcomes and influence them by causing actions that presumably help. Of course, there are counter actions intended to thwart some other action and life goes on.
In business, an Accountant observes certain factors and informs his client of the likely results if actions are not taken to stop or change the direction that had been predicted to be deleterious. In a sense, the Account is a type of sensor or additional perception point that when conveyed can be acted upon. But listening to suc observations and advice is different than being responsible and taking appropriate action. This is again, that hard to locate cause, inaction. But, inaction is the demise of many businesses whose leadership just went there own way, ignored the observation of others and let things take their predictable course. This in my view is intentional or it could be just stupidity.
As a responsible person, I would have spoken up about the child at poolside. The child would have lived. But in our current society, I'd have been balled out for interfering or worse.
In spite of punishment for observing the wrongs, dangers or predictable failings, I will continue to make my observations in any field of life. Once in a while, I will write about something I observe and as often, call upon the one who is charged with responsibility for that area to take action. Today, I call upon the US Citizenry to be responsible and vote out Biden, clean house in a big way and get the USA back on track. AMong the issues I see, is the worst foreign policy of my lifetime. We hover at the brink of nuclear war under Biden's ineptitude. If eve article 25 needed to be used it is now. Unfortunately, the war is intended. It gives good reason to have unrest, perhaps declare Marshall law and suspend the Presidential election and along with it our Rights. A simple retracement back to 2014 and Newland's coup in Ukraine ousting a pro Russian duly elected President and replacing him with a CIA backed one and in a stunning admission buying time with the Mink accord to build Ukraine's armed forces tells the tale and the causation. A foreign policy that changes the vote of the people in order to protect Democracy is a perverse joke. Ukraine paid Hunter and likely sleepy Joe big cash and is a known hotbed for corruption. It is not a Democracy, in fact the elections were suspended so it is at best a puppet government which was proven by Boris Johnson holding court over Zelensky and putting the kibosh on a sign peace deal with Russia just before the eventual Russian “invasion”. No mystery. The USA intended the war and relished under war mongers the idea of Ukrainians facing off with Russians. Now, that war will end but not before a new hot war is begun. The next war could be the last war. It will bring little comfort to know who is responsible. But fast action and a return to intentional actions toward peace might still work.
The problem in courts is what evidence gets allowed to be seen. In some cases, convictions happen because evidence was withheld or ruled inadmissible. Trump saw that in his NYC hush money trial. Let's look at all of the evidence and call a spade a spade. Biden is a disaster. Replacing him and his war monger cronies is the responsible thing to do, lest we drown in the pool.
Best,
Donn Marier
DM-Your Own CFO