It seems we are having issues with entitlement. Everybody seems to think the world is out of control, so people are grasping desperately at whatever might make them feel somewhat empowered, even if it’s for nothing at all.
It might have to do with our current state of national affairs. Nothing is within our control, including health care. In other countries, everybody gets health care, but it’s not because they are entitled to it, but because they look upon their health differently and don’t abuse themselves to the point at which caring for their self-inflicted ills becomes a burden on society. The system can afford to take care of people who take care of themselves.
Entitlement is a reward, but not an automatic one. Often entitlement tries to link up with empowerment, but they don’t always work the same. Here is an example.
A customer accused us of being misogynistic because an email contact meant for her husband appeared in her inbox. Of course there was a simple reason for it: they both provided her email address as a contact point. She was angry, though, because for some obscure reason, she felt that by us going through her to reach her spouse, that she was marginalized, and she was entitled to receive only contacts specifically meant for her. Sure she was entitled, if we got the right information. Misogyny had nothing to do with it, but her tirade sounded better that way to her at the time. She was angry, and angry people often want to feel entitled.
A coworker announced at lunch the other day, “I can’t quit smoking.” This means that she is entitled to keep on smoking. It also means that medical science is entitled to work diligently to cure her lung cancer, because she is entitled to a cure even if she caused the disease. Such a proclamation does not sit well with me, because anybody with an ounce of sense–including myself–knows that starting a bad habit is always easier than it is to break it, but that does not entitle us to keep doing it. Doctors are burdened with the task of working on sick people with blackened lungs who could have prevented it by just not picking up what is essentially a miniature lit torch and inhaling its contents for 30 years.
A commercial on our local networks tries to convince us that the Philadelphia soda tax is a good thing because children are able to attend Pre-K when they could not before the funding from the tax entitled more kids to the early education system. The ad shows cute little cusses in graduation caps, receiving diplomas for finishing Pre-K. When I went through school, one didn’t graduate anything except high school senior year. That cap and gown and diploma meant something because it took thirteen years of my life to get it. One was not entitled to graduation; it was earned through hard work. What on earth do these youngsters do to entitle them to a graduation from Pre-K? And then elementary school, middle school? We tend to over-entitle when we don’t want to wait for the reward.
People who feel entitled don’t flush toilet seat covers when they leave the restroom stall. They don’t wipe off a table when they are finished with it. They drop food wrappers on the sidewalk when a trash receptacle is feet away. To them, they are entitled, and all the hard work is somebody else’s job.
The problem is, you and I and everybody are somebody’s somebody else. The cleaning staff don’t feel entitled to clean after you when you make a mess. That was supposed to end before your age had double digits in it. The health care system steps in with a sigh because you decided to not eat your carrots when you were a kid and felt entitled to be a picky eater, and now you’re sick.
I could go on, but I feel you’re entitled to not hear me rant.
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