“J’accuse …!” ( “I accuse…!”) was a famous open letter to French president Félix Faure, published  January 13, 1898 in the newspaper L’Aurore by novelist Émile Zola. It accused the French Government anti-Semitism and a breach of justice in the prosecution and imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army General Staff officer sentenced to lifelong penal servitude for espionage. His well-argued accusation was the epitome of effective finger-pointing, and played a major role in bringing down a corrupt government.

Nonetheless, pointing fingers where they need to be pointed, when they need to be pointed, is inconvenient for the incompetents, miscreants, con artists, spinners and otherwise accountable parties so accused. Thus they and their allies often exploit this peculiar rationalization, which is better described, perhaps, as rationalization fertilizer, since it is a catalyst for the employment of many others, including the Biblical rationalizations. “Don’t point fingers!”, or its common variation, “Stop pointing fingers!” provides protection for the very people who most deserve to be pointed to, allowing them to deny culpability, avoid the just consequences of their failings, and best of all, divert appropriate attention from what they have done or not done to the supposed meanness and vindictiveness of critics who want to make sure the same mistakes don’t occur again, especially with the same officials in charge.

And, ironically, the cry “Don’t point fingers!” is often followed by those who cry it pointing fingers themselves, at others. It has unlocked, in such circumstances, the use of Rationalization #7, The Tit-For-Tat Excuse, which holds that one party’s unethical conduct justifies similar unethical conduct in return.

#46, Zola’s Rejection, is especially insidious because it is literally true when the finger-pointing is an effort to divert attention away from the individuals and bad decisions responsible for a disaster. We are seeing this in the reaction to the complete inadequacy of the Obama Administration’s response to the Ebola crisis.  Various professional Obama accountability-evaders are now making the accusation that the breakdown in the health system was caused by Republican-led budget cuts. Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post Factchecker and himself an Obama accountability-evader on occasion (though much less lately), pronounced that pointed finger a digital lie:

“Generally, Congress gave the NIH about what the president requested — sometimes more, sometimes less. In 2013, for instance, Congress gave the NIH more than what the White House had requested, but then $1.5 billion was taken away by sequestration. Whose idea was sequestration? It was originally a White House proposal, designed to force Congress to either swallow painful cuts or boost taxes. The law mandating sequestration passed on a bipartisan vote — and then Republicans embraced it even more strongly when they could not reach a grand budget deal with President Obama. For fiscal year 2015, the documents show, it was the Obama White House that proposed to cut the NIH’s budget from the previous year. Moreover, we should note that President George W. Bush, a Republican, is responsible for significantly boosting NIH’s funding in the early years of his presidency.”

Yes indeed, we should certainly stop this kind of finger pointing.

As Zola’s audacity showed, however, justified finger-pointing is essential for society to improve, reform, and advance. Finger pointing is how ethical standards are decided and enforced, by objective and responsible citizens and institutions pointing fingers and saying, “You are right, you are wrong,” and explaining why, fairly and reasonably. During the various interviews as the entire set of Ebola protocols and their execution were shown to be ineffective and ill-considered, I watched one official after another say, “We have to stop pointing fingers and fix the problem.” How can any problem be fixed without identifying who screwed up, and making certain they either don’t do it again, or are not in the position to do it again?

Those who employ Zola’s Rejection exploit the Golden Rule distortion used by the anti-snitching forces: none of us would want the finger pointed at us, so, the argument goes,  we shouldn’t point at others. It is clever, because their real motivation is to take accountability off the table, since they are the ones accountable. An ethical individual, however, especially a public servant, should always want the finger pointed at him or her if in fact he or she is responsible. It is the only way to do one’s job better—to learn from mistakes. Ethical people willingly, openly and fearlessly point fingers at themselves, if necessary and deserved.