Beyond Blame

Through an examination of thirty-five major inquiries into child sexual abuse, the authors identify common themes with important implications for professional practice.

"IT veteran Dave Zweiback describes an incident that threatens the very existence of a large financial institution, and the counterintuitive steps its leadership took to stop the downward spiral. Their novel approach is grounded in proven concepts from complexity science, resilience engineering, human factors, cognitive science, and organizational psychology. It allows us to identify the underlying conditions for failure, and make our systems (and organizations) safer and more resilient."--Page 4 of cover.

The inspiring new book from the author of Emotional Bullshit reveals why no one is to blame-but everyone's accountable. For many, a rare day goes by in which the need to blame does not arise-be it to cover one's own errors or just to assign an unfortunate event some kind of name (i.e., "If only X hadn't said X, we wouldn't be in this mess.") And even for those who are somewhat better at keeping the impulse in check-it is still there. According to psychologist Carl Alasko, blame is such an intrinsic part of how we humans communicate that we rarely take a look at what we're actually doing-and how it can affect our relationships. In this book, Alasko reveals that the need to assign blame when something bad happens stems from a very deep desire we all share to "see justice done". Understandable when a grave crime has been committed, but it can become a dangerous habit if we begin to operate as though placing blame were somehow necessary if we want to change something or someone in our world. Yet this feeling that "someone has to pay" is seldom productive in initiating positive change. In Beyond Blame, Alasko teaches readers to recognize destruction that blame causes in their lives-oftentimes without their even being aware-and to put an end to it once and for all. The path to eliminating blame is not a quick or easy one but, as Carl Alasko demonstrates, it is a road that must be traveled if we hope to achieve true peace in our lives.

John Marshall Tanner must outwit an expert in insanity to reveal the truth behind a woman’s brutal murder Dianne Renzel’s parents, a kind old Swedish couple, have just sold their business and are planning to use some of the money to purchase a car for their only child. But when their daughter is found murdered in her home, her flesh cut to ribbons by a madman’s blade, they’ll need to buy her justice instead. The police investigation quickly stalls, and the Renzels reach out to the only private investigator in San Francisco sensitive enough to handle this gruesome crime: John Marshall Tanner. Dianne was married to Lawrence Usser, a constitutional law professor known for helping killers evade punishment by pleading temporary insanity. When Usser is accused of murdering Dianne, his natural recourse is his most practiced defense. It falls to Tanner to prove that Usser knew what he was doing when he butchered his innocent young wife—and the case will take the detective far past the brink of madness. Beyond Blame is the 5th book in the John Marshall Tanner Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

In these uplifting personal stories, ordinary people describe in their own words how the teachings of Kabbalah have enabled them to move beyond blame and transform their life experiences from victim status to mastery.

Armstrong Williams, a nationally-syndicated radio and television host, sets a higher standard for himself. Through his shows, and in his personal life as well, Armstrong lives his own rhetoric of individual empowerment, hard work, faith, and social responsibility.

An Invitation to Discover Personal Freedom, Authentic Relationships, and Limitless Possibility What is the greatest obstacle to your fulfillment, success, and happiness? "It's the belief," teaches Fleet Maull, "that your current situation, whatever it is, has the power to determine your future." Before he was a revered meditation teacher, Fleet Maull served 14 years in prison for drug trafficking. And during that time, he embarked on a path of transformation and service that today has helped tens of thousands—from inmates to hospice patients to top-level business leaders. With Radical Responsibility, he invites us to experience for ourselves the life-changing journey from victim to co-creator. Here, he guides us step-by-step to shift our fear-based conditioning into the habits of courage, compassion, and positive change. Join him to delve deeply into: • The complete Radical Responsibility® method for breaking free of your learned limitations and accessing limitless possibility • Discovering basic goodness— your indestructible inner resource for happiness, connection, and strength • Fleet Maull's mindfulness-based emotional intelligence (MBEI) model—neuroscience-informed principles and tools for shedding shame and blame and embracing self-awareness, resilience, and freedom from our self-created suffering • Getting off the Drama Triangle and into the Empowerment Zone—profound practices to transform interpersonal conflicts • Creating your life plan—a clear and achievable map for living your highest purpose, and many other chapters of real-world-tested insights and strategies If you would like to take your life to the next level and truly optimize your health, relationships, career, and other life pursuits, Radical Responsibility will give you the expert guidance to move beyond the inner walls of your beliefs and realize your full potential. This book includes access to guided audio sessions for many of the exercises, available online.

Media is usually seen as a feature of the modern world enabled by the latest technologies. Scholars, educators, parents, and politicians often talk about media as something people should be wary of due to its potential negative impact on their lives. But do we really understand what media is? Elizaveta Friesem argues that instead of being worried about media or blaming it for what’s going wrong in society, we should become curious about uniquely human ways we communicate with each other. Media Is Us proposes five key principles of communication that are relevant both for the modern media and for people’s age-old ways of making sense of the world. In order to understand problems of the contemporary society revealed and amplified by the latest technologies, we will have to ask difficult questions about ourselves. Where do our truths and facts come from? How can we know who is to blame for flaws of the social system? What can we change about our own everyday actions to make the world a better place? To answer these questions we will need to rethink not only the term “media” but also the concept of power. The change of perspective proposed by the book is intended to help the reader become more self-aware and also empathic towards those who choose different truths. Concluding with practical steps to build media literacy through the ACE model—from Awareness to Collaboration through Empathy—this timely book is essential for students and scholars, as well as anyone who would use the new understanding of media to decrease the current levels of cultural polarization.