Punishment of many for the actions of one.

[October Knight]

YOU WILL ALL PAY THE PRICE!

​

Something happened recently that involved several people I know getting into trouble for the actions of a single person. It has always baffled me as to why this practice is used. I guess I can see it in the military, since the group mentality is a strong focus of their inner working, but in the work place or at home with siblings it blows my mind.

What say you? I am curious and want to know how people feel about this and if you have delt with it first hand.

Do you think that many people paying for one persons mistake is a good way to handle discipline as an authority figure?

 

[Karsikan the Berzerker]

in the military it happens all the time, justified by saying that if one person is fucked up, you all suffer because the rest of you didn't pick up the slack.
I personally find this to be horseshit on the grounds that it will never teach the one who's wrong to do things right, only that if he doesn't do it, someone else will.

 

[Diana]

I think it's one of those kind of punishments where it matters A LOT what the punishment is actually for.

Cause there's a lot of cases where one person fucks up and they are the only person that deserves the blame. But there's other cases where one person does something and the people with that person COULD have done something but didn't.

Kinda like when we have issues in the cbox. >> One guy being an asshole then that one guy gets the punishment. But if one dude starts something and then everyone in there makes the situation worse, then everyone's gotta get the time out to calm down.

It's all about the KIND of situation and if the consequences are appropriate!

 

[Seiji]

I think it's horse shit, but I see the logic behind it.

By punishing everyone, you force the others to make sure something like this never happens again. If you punish the individual, only they learn the lesson. The others might repeat it. If you punish the group, everyone learns the lesson, and they are more likely to enforce self-discipline on themselves and the group as a whole.

"Dude, you better not fucking do that or I'll kick your ass myself."

 

[Vay]

Justifiable if the group, of members of it know whose guilty. Or if the guilty will feel more guilt by watching the suffering of all and confess. All depends on the severity of the crime and the size/nature of the group.

 

[Dawn Bringer Invictus]

Depends on the circumstances really, as Diana said. Sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes it isn't.

 

[October Knight]

I have found all your answers interesting



Anyone else have a say on this>?

 

[Cotillion]

Like others have said, it depends on what the crime actually was. I do see it as a beneficial disciplinary strategy in some cases since the group has to start regulating it's own actions so they don't get punished again.

 

[Kooriryu]

The only times I've ever seen other people being lumped in with the blame for what one person did is when the circumstances were that the people were in some kind of group; be it classmates, people in the same department, the same shift, the same whatever. The key word is group.

I'm not gonna front and say I'll gladly take the punishment of someone else's fuck up with a happy grin on my face-- it's a bad feeling and ain't nobody likes taking it. But the the thing to keep in mind is that it's a group punishment, meaning I'm part of that group, as a group my individuality is no longer taken into consideration so to have the gall to scream and yell and cry about being punished because of what someone else did seems to be so reprehensibly conceited. By whining about not deserving to be punished because you didn't do it, you turn your back on your group and demand special treatment solely based on your inaction. And you know, it's always gotta be some motherfucker in a group who just ignores the meaning of group and just wants to be the goddamn special little snowflake by either not pulling their weight and still expecting to be included or pulling too much weight and expecting to be fucking held up on a pedestal.

If you don't want to be punished for what someone in your group did, fine, whatever, you whiny little bitch but your punkass should still get punished for fucking not taking on the responsibility you have as a member in a group. End of (my) story.