Amos

"Who, then, was responsible for that choice, with its remarkable life-saving consequences for him, and such catastrophic ones for the friend who requested the swap? It is no good pretending he was in the grip of destiny or divine powers; he made the decision he made, and the consequences rolled out as they did."

Indeed,

But if someone were to extend this reasoning by saying that therefore anyone who swaps flights is asking to crash into the sea, and if they do crash into the sea then they only have themselves to blame for swapping flights, then that would clearly be an absurd position to take, as the crash itself was not a consequence of the swap.

You have correctly identified that for one person, swapping flights possibly saved their life, while for the other, it was a decision that led to their death.


Let us apply the same even handedness to the thread topic, and consider a scenario where a woman who usually goes out, decides one night to stay in and have a quiet night in with a cup of hot cocoa instead.

There is a knock at the door and a man she knows comes in and ultimately rapes her.

If she had dressed up, gone out and had a few drinks with her friends, he wouldn't have found her at home and the attack wouldn't have happened.

In terms of the type of responsibility of whih you speak, she is responsible for putting herself in that situation.

The employee who is raped by her boss is responsible for being in the office at the wrong time.

But neither of them, nor the girl who is out having a drink at a club, are any more responsible than each other for putting themselves in situations where they were raped.

And all of them equally bear no responsibility for the actions of the rapist.

My position still stands.