Kethuvim

O'Reilly said something that just made me want to shout, "No!  You've missed the point!"  He said, "The Internet's not going to police itself, it's simply not going to do it.  They're going to exploit every crack in the society they can."  Did you notice what he did there?  He referred to the internet like it was its own physical entity.  This may not seem like a big deal, but it is.  It's a very subtle wording, yet it's loaded with meaning.  

What he just did was take any responsibility away from people, and put it onto a network of information that makes its way onto computer screens.  If I watch something on the internet that contributes to my downfall or the downfall of society (like porn for instance), that isn't the fault of an interconnected series of wires which transmit information onto my computer screen. The internet itself can not bear any responsibility for anyone's downfall or the downfall of society, because wires and information don't have a soul or the ability to make decisions.  They are slaves to a person that tells them what to transmit.  

The line of reasoning O'Reilly used there (in all fairness, probably unknowingly) was on par with a drug addict that blames the needle for his addiction, or the person who commits murder and says, "The devil made me do it," as if that somehow exonerates then.  It's all garbage.  We are the only ones who bear responsibility for our actions, no one else.  To me, it seems that this line of thinking is actually what's damaging our society.  No one takes responsibility for their actions.  We're becoming a culture of people who want all praise, and no responsibility for our failings.  This is dangerous because it just leads to endless finger-pointing without any solutions.  Only when a failure is admitted to can it be remedied.  Without an admission of guilt and responsibility, we live in a never-ending cycle of blame, in which the problems that face society never get fixed.  A society with all problems and no solutions seems to be doomed.