It's all the fault of the system

‘It's all the fault of the system’ is a fairly typical cry of those who declare themselves anti-establishment. The ‘system’ may be the government (or capitalism), or authority in any form, or even the traditional way of looking at, for example, sexual behaviour. Because of the uncertainty of exactly what is meant by ‘the system’, it is always desirable to ask those who make this cry what ‘system’ it is that they are finding fault with. The ‘system’ itself cannot be good or bad. The term is a neutral one in itself. The person who complains about the ‘system’ may be angry about the method by which the country is run financially, or about the way the country is run politically, representative democracy, or he may feel angry with a particular authority figure such as the Prime Minister, or a judge, or a boss, or even with his own parents, the most obvious authority figures in his life.