Accountability is critical in human life, but too often when people call for it, they mean "I want to be allowed to be as mean as I want to this person because ABCD." Actually, accountability is simpler than "consequences." It means that whatever you do, that's what you did. Lie all you want, perhaps, but you'll never overturn the fact. No way out of it. Even if you aren't admitting something (would you admit to attending a synagogue in Nazi Germany, to a Nazi at your door? they don't deserve that particular truth), you must admit it to yourself, or you let yourself down. That's the beginning of accountability, responsibility, morality, and understanding.

Usually, in speech, when not a cover for instincts toward revenge, "accountability" calls for open admission and submission to correction. It doesn't mean agreeing to anything and everything that's asked or demanded. If you're in a cast and I step on your foot in a crowd and hurt you, perhaps you think it's more than fair to stamp on my foot in turn. Perhaps that is fair, and perhaps that is not fair. But there's an enormous difference between my admitting to myself that I stepped on your foot, and my not admitting it to myself. And there's another enormous difference between my admitting to you that I stepped on your foot, and my not admitting it to you. There's yet a third enormous difference between my accepting the task of making it up to you or at least making sure it doesn't happen again, and my not accepting that task. And there's a fourth enormous difference between following through on that task enough to repair the situation and prevent any repeat, and not following through. All of these fall under "accountability." Revenge and punishment do not necessarily.