The Blame Game

Headmaster’s Routh Assembly Address
Monday 8th February 2021

Video Recording: The Blame Game 

Good morning and Xīnnián kuàilè to those of you who will commemorate the start of Chinese New Year today. No prizes for guessing what sort of good fortune I wish for you all, as the Year of the Ox unfolds. May the pandemic soon end, both in China and in every nation in the world.

Sadly of course, there are still a few who do not share that New Year sentiment of goodwill to all nations as this crisis drags on. People who think that China is to blame for COVID-19. Those who find it easier to deal with adversity by blaming others. Not helped by conspiracy theorists, who spread unfounded stories that the virus was somehow deliberately manufactured by the Chinese government. Made worse by former US President, Donald Trump, who delighted in referring to COVID-19 as “the China Virus”.

It is a sad fact that our global reaction to the spread of the virus raises uncomfortable questions about racial attitudes and ultra-nationalism in the world today. Although the virus threatens us all the same, some people struggle to accept that their country is in the same boat as everyone else. They can’t help thinking that their nation is better, superior to everyone else’s.

A bit of rivalry between countries is not unhealthy of course, and it is certainly not uncommon. We see it in sporting competitions all the time. The medals table at the Olympics; which nation has the most Bronze, Silver and Gold to carry home? That sense of pride as your country’s flag is raised, your anthem played, even though you didn’t personally compete. Our country’s fortunes can make us feel like winners. Or losers.

Look at this past weekend. The start of the Six Nations Rugby competition. Rivalry on the field that symbolises our national identity. Pain for England versus the joy throughout Scotland, as they won at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years. But what happened after the final whistle?

Regret from the English fans, certainly. Perhaps a few grumbles about the ref. Some armchair experts sitting at home, questioning the coach’s decisions. But nobody blaming Scotland for winning. Who do we admire after a hard sporting loss? The team that blames the ref, or the weather, or the bounce of the ball? Or the team that looks at themselves, reflects on their own mistakes.

If we can manage our feelings of national pride and identity in sporting competitions without blaming others, we should be able to do the same with our response to the pandemic.

They say that nothing unites people better than having a common enemy. That is certainly the narrative that we see at the movies. In apocalyptic films, where the whole of humanity is threatened by some existential threat, like a comet hurtling towards Earth. Or a catastrophic global weather event. Or an alien invasion, maybe. In those situations, everyone pulls together. They forget petty squabbles and join forces.

Superpowers like the US and Russia co-ordinate to fire all their nuclear missiles at the comet. Scientists from every continent team up and share their knowledge to quell the natural hazard. Up in space, astronauts from many different nations fight side by side to foil the aliens. It is called the INTERNATIONAL Space Station for a reason. In the movies, when all the people of Earth are threatened, nations always seem to put aside their cultural differences and work in harmony until disaster is averted.

Sadly, it is not always the same in real life. The World Health Organisation and the United Nations are trying to coordinate a united global response. But countries blaming other countries doesn’t help.

It may have been comforting for some to point the finger at China last year, but it is not quite so comfortable now that people are talking about the “British variant”, which is more contagious. To have other nations putting Britain on their own red list because now, we are the problem.

The same for the Brazilian strain, or the South African one. Not so nice to hear your own county’s name being used to label something awful. It is not as if Britain or Brazil or South Africa deliberately cooked up a new variant and unleashed it on the world, is it? In the same way, China didn’t.

It is true that there is currently a team of WHO scientists in Wuhan, investigating how COVID-19 may have started. But they are there to learn, rather than blame. It may turn out that some people made mistakes early on, and no doubt they will be held to account if that was the case. But who is to say that would not have happened if the virus started in your own country? We need to learn from mistakes, not just punish them. And we need to be careful not to be arrogant about where we stand in the world rankings.

The media have an obsession with comparing the pandemic experiences of different countries. Highest death toll, longest lockdown, fastest vaccination. It is like the Covid Olympics. However, virus league tables are only of any use if they are helpful, not hurtful. Knowing what is working well in some places should assist others in doing better. Not simply make us feel smug that we are better off.

For a start, no-one is having it easy. There is a price to be paid for every strategy. My own country, New Zealand, keeps getting held up as a nation that has it right. Yet the cost is near total isolation. As a consequence of those policies, I have not been able to get home and see my mother, my children, or my grandkids, for over a year. I am not complaining; many others have it worse. And, although that is hard, I don’t blame anyone either. The writer, Douglas Coupland, once said “Blame is just a lazy person's way of making sense of chaos.” But the blame game is worse than that.

Why did Trump call it the “China virus”? Because blame helps shift responsibility. Blaming others allows us to avoid looking at what our own responsibility is in a bad situation. As long as he implied that coronavirus was something that the Chinese had “done” to America, he avoided the focus shifting onto his own failure to protect his people.

That’s how blame works. It’s easier to blame someone else than to accept responsibility. It helps you preserve your sense of self-esteem, avoids you facing your own flaws or failings. Unfortunately though, when we blame others for our mistakes, we ultimately learn less and perform worse.

Blame is pointless. The same principle holds true for your own lives. Obsessing about who to blame for the way you are feeling right now avoids considering your own role in events that trouble you. And your power to alter them.

When we return onsite in March, and I am confident that we will, it will be the start of assessments in all year levels. If you do well in those tests, no doubt you will say “That is because I worked hard all year, I studied well, and I am good in this subject.”

But what will you say if you don’t do so well? Will you protest that it wasn’t fair, that the pandemic was to blame? That your performance is COVID’s fault? Or that the School made the test too hard? Your teacher didn’t do enough online? Your parents should have better WiFi? Or will you look inward, and ask “Did I do enough?”

Blame may make you feel better, but only an honest look at your own mistakes will stop it happening again. I might add, it applies to teachers as well. A wise Indian guru once said “Don’t blame children for forgetting their lessons. Make the lessons unforgettable.” Your teachers are under the same pressures as you right now, but they are not looking to apportion blame for the challenges they face. Instead, they get up every morning and make the best of what they have got. And I know from watching their lessons they encourage you far more often than they find fault. There is a lesson in that alone.

I leave you with the words of Catherine the Great, who said “Praise loudly, blame softly.” Have a good final week.