It's Unwinding...Our Culture Of Entitlement

In March 2016, Rob Dreher reported the following in his article, “You Can See It All Over. It’s Unwinding”: “Honestly, I’ve had it with people. I’ve had it with Trump supporters who think their anger and their outrage gives them the right to punch people in the face. I’ve had it with Black Lives Matter and other Social Justice Warriors who think the so-called righteousness of their cause gives them the right to silence those who disagree with them. I’m sick and tired of people who think everything wrong in their lives is because somebody, somewhere, has wronged them. Guess what? You can’t screw whoever you like, have as many kids as you like, or as many partners as you like, walk away from your marriage (if you ever marry), and expect everything to be okay. You can’t drink, drug, party, “keep it real,” make excuses for your children, make excuses for yourself, allow our degraded popular culture to raise your kids, and expect good outcomes. You can’t throw money at problems and expect them to go away (e.g., pay to send your kids to a Christian school, and assume that your tuition fee contractually entitles you to opt out of the moral and spiritual formation of your children), or assume that being a Nice Middle-Class Person is sufficient. It’s not. I’m tired of the rich and the middle class who expect everything to be handed to them, and fall to pieces when it isn’t. I’m tired of the working class and the poor who live as if their relative material deprivation gives them a pass from having to live by basic standards of conduct that most everybody understood and affirmed within living memory, but which are all but forgotten today. Above all, I’m tired of a culture in which so many people have no idea how to tell themselves no, to anything, ever. A culture of entitlement.”

I know this is a lot to take in all at once. It’s a pretty epic rant about life here in America, but if you take a deep breath, keep an open mind, regardless of your political views, regardless of your views on religion, marriage, sexuality, race, and the many other very human things we are arguing about day in and day out, then go back and read this little rant again, I am sure there are at least a couple points with which you will agree. It definitely struck a chord with me.

We need to put aside our political bias and political agendas for a few minutes and address the items in this rant as facts about life in America today because sadly, no matter how you look at it, these are facts. This is an apt description of the America in which we live – an America that is far different from the America that was envisioned by the hard working idealists that founded her – an America that has lost her way because she has abandoned the core values upon which she was built. And I am not talking about religious values – I am talking about the very human-centric values of common sense, accountability and personal responsibility. If we were on a large ancient ship powered by one hundred rowing people, only sixty-six of us would be rowing. Thirty-three of us would rowing one way and the other thirty-three would be rowing the other way, each of us refusing to stop and agree on a direction, resulting in our large majestic ship no longer moving at all.

The only way to get our ship moving again is for us to pause and address the issues that are keeping it from moving forward. It’s time for us to start working together again. It’s time for each of us to expect more of every single one of us – time for each of us to expect each and every one of us to row, not just some of us, because in the end, there is absolutely no excuse for any able-minded and able-bodied American to not be rowing.

Honestly, I’ve had it with people. I’ve had it with Trump supporters who think their anger and their outrage gives them the right to punch people in the face. I’ve had it with Black Lives Matter and other Social Justice Warriors who think the so-called righteousness of their cause gives them the right to silence those who disagree with them.

While this article was written in March when the establishment media’s coverage was laser-focused on some very shitty deeds by a few people at Trump rallies, the point it makes about resorting to physical confrontations is quite spot on. I do, however, find it interesting that the establishment media’s microscope-like analysis of every sneeze made by Trump supporters seemed to fade into a blurred, high-level, spend a few seconds on it look at violence surrounding the primary elections once the tables turned and thugs and anarchists were pelting Trump supporters with eggs, rocks and bricks in the streets, hunting them down in mass, roving gangs.

No American, regardless of any trait, should be subjected to a physical confrontation due to their beliefs on a subject or no matter how contrary those views may be to a single person, or a mob of thugs who call themselves protestors. March peacefully all you want to, but as soon as the protest march you have organized spirals out of control, take responsibility and root out those factions. Work with authorities to stop your protest marches from having a negative impact on the community. Don’t turn and look the other way when vandals and criminals take over your march or your movement by simply throwing your hands up in the air and saying there was nothing you could do to stop it.

And most importantly, we have to realize that no single one of us has a right to silence the opposing views of another. We are human enough to have civil discourse on the issues, in peace, without being human enough to resort to violence and personal attacks, which accomplish absolutely nothing. Our civic and political leaders, especially our president, should never support groups or people who resort to these tactics of intimidation, fear and violence.

I’m sick and tired of people who think everything wrong in their lives is because somebody, somewhere, has wronged them.

America has become a nation of deflectors. For every ailment in life, all someone has to do is blame someone or something else for that ailment and they are instantly forgiven for not taking the personal responsibility necessary to correct or address it. In other words, nothing is ever anyone’s own fault – it is always someone else’s fault. No money for college? Not your family’s fault for not saving, not your fault for not being willing to work in the university cafeteria to pay your way because you are too far above a job like that. Clearly, the hard-working American taxpayer should have to foot the bill for your education instead. Not getting hired for a job? Must be because school didn’t prepare you enough, or the hiring managers must be racists, or it must be the fault of those fat cat Wall Street pigs, or someone or something else, right? And it’s not your fault you’re a smoker or a drinker. I am sure it is genetic, or perhaps the fault of the companies who produce cigs and booze for using their slick advertising to force you to buy them. It is amazing how people will ardently demand free will, but then once they have it, everything they do to harm themselves, those around them, or their livelihoods, is clearly a result of every other outside influence except their own free will.

Guess what? You can’t screw whoever you like, have as many kids as you like, or as many partners as you like, walk away from your marriage (if you ever marry), and expect everything to be okay.

But, with the social safety net that is forever increasing in cost and relying on a forever-decreasing percentage of the population who is burdened with paying for it, they really seem to think they can. The more kids you have, the more money they put on your gub’ment debit card. The more kids you have, the less society seems to expect you to pay for raising those kids. It’s not enough that you can keep them on your government-mandated health insurance until they are 26 years old, but apparently, they are soon going to have a civil right to a college education as well, of course, at someone else’s expense. Government is paying people to have more kids, not raise them, and then insists that society coddle them later and later in life. Remember when you were an adult at 18? Now, it’s 26. When will adulthood begin eight years form now? 35?

This misguided incentive to breed carelessly and coddle the resulting “young”, society’s newfound lack of necessity for the family unit, regardless of its makeup, and the acceptance and proliferation of the “baby-daddy” all have us on our way to the same ruin as every other prolific empire in the history of mankind that allowed itself to become too dependent on the productivity of an ever-decreasing amount of producers that eventually end up becoming a minority of the population, then, finally, one day, say, “Enough is enough!”

You can’t drink, drug, party, “keep it real,” make excuses for your children, make excuses for yourself, allow our degraded popular culture to raise your kids, and expect good outcomes.

Did our grandparents who told us that things used to be safer sell us a false narrative about that past? Did television, the movies and the history books all lie to us when they told us that things were simpler, less dangerous and less complicated in the past? Is there no relation between the break down of the family, again, regardless of its makeup, and increases in crime, poverty, drug use, etc.?

And at the same time, how is the rise of reality television and all of the horrible people that it turns into role models for the young not going to have an effect on the moral fiber of our society?

In our rush to be our children’s best friend and make sure they have the same material luxuries our neighbors are providing their kids, we’re forgetting to raise the little bastards! And not raising your little bastards properly is what is leading to the increase in crime, decrease in safety, and a good deal of the social tension we are experiencing as a society and as a nation.

You must get a license for just about everything you do in this country, but bringing a human being into this world that society must then clothe, feed, shelter, and keep from killing us one way or another is not one of them.

Yet, this never-may-care attitude and no-consequences-ever lifestyle that we are continually promoting to our youth and making completely acceptable for their parents and other adults in this country is a self-perpetuating monstrosity that doesn’t seem to have a cure. Until the people of this country who engage in and promote this lifestyle change their way, this train is only going to approach the cliff at a faster and faster rate. Good luck stopping it!

You can’t throw money at problems and expect them to go away (e.g., pay to send your kids to a Christian school, and assume that your tuition fee contractually entitles you to opt out of the moral and spiritual formation of your children), or assume that being a Nice Middle-Class Person is sufficient. It’s not. I’m tired of the rich and the middle class who expect everything to be handed to them, and fall to pieces when it isn’t.

And not only are the ills of this modern, devil-may-care society in which we find ourselves ruining this country, the people perpetrating it seem to feel they are playing no role in its existence. Parents are so concerned with being a slightly older version of their kids’ generation that they are forgetting what got them where they are in life, a strong upbringing by their parents, not a special friendship with “Joe” and “Suzy” as their kids call them because they are cooler than all the other kids’ parents.

Spend, spend, spend, buy, buy, buy, smile and wave at the neighbors, buy your kids every little material thing they whine for, and bam, you are a great parent and a productive member of society. Meanwhile, you’re not teaching these kids the true value of life, the true value of hard work, the true value of America. When did we all achieve the automatic entitlement to things that past generations had to work for?

I’m tired of the working class and the poor who live as if their relative material deprivation gives them a pass from having to live by basic standards of conduct that most everybody understood and affirmed within living memory, but which are all but forgotten today. Above all, I’m tired of a culture in which so many people have no idea how to tell themselves no, to anything, ever. A culture of entitlement.

While there is not rioting and looting in the streets everyday, some of us have definitely witnessed it firsthand at least a couple of times. And this behavior is a prime example of the mentality that is beginning to plague this nation more and more. The rioter and looter believe they have somehow been wronged by a society that has more than they do. They believe they have some inherent right to go out and obtain material items they will not pay for or work for by stealing them from someone who has. The worst part is that they believe they are not actually stealing those items, but, in fact, are owed those items by society. Other people can afford a big, flat screen TV, and even though I can’t, I deserve to have one, too, so when people are looting the Best Buy, I’m gonna go and get what’s mine.

Again, while the physical act of rioting and looting is rare, this same entitled mentality occurs each and every day in this country in a perfectly legal manner, silently, hidden behind the guise of social welfare. For those of us who produce, when we earn income, poof, there goes a portion of it to the government. After legally and quietly looting our income via electronic debit, the government then doles that money out to the people who apparently deserve it more than the people who actually worked for it.

People who, for whatever reason, cannot afford the same material luxuries as others feel they are entitled to the same as those who can. Why do they feel that way? Why should I be entitled to things that are not mine, things that I have not earned or worked for? It is because we, as a society, have made them feel that this entitlement is perfectly acceptable. Too many people are saying, “Yes, I agree, you deserve these things,” instead of, “If you want these things, get off your ass and get out there and earn them.” This message of entitlement is being relayed loud and clear to far too many.

All of these ills can be traced back to one simple thing: In America, we used to applaud and reward hard work and dedication and look down upon freeloading, laziness and entitlement. Today, we are continually scoffing more and more at those who work hard and embracing the so-called “plight” of those who do not. It is time for everyone to contribute – time for everyone to pay their “fair share”, not just some of us.

It is time for everyone to row. It is time for those of us who are rowing to no longer accept the excuses of those who are not rowing. It is time for us to stop rowing for them. It is time for us to work together to pick a direction and get this large majestic ship moving again.

Photo via Pixabay