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entitlement
Entitled individuals can bob and weave their way through life deftly in large part because those of us around them allow it to happen. We enable that action. We are all guilty of enabling in one form or another -- however, small or large that enablement.
As much as running your own family requires keeping things straight from an internal perspective, let's face it: sooner or later these little buggers are going to have to face the outside world and subject themselves to the judgement, which can only come from other parents, teachers, and so-called authority figures.
Children don't need their parents to be their friends. That's what they have peers for. A family is one place where a hierarchy is not only appropriate, it's ideal, as children need guidance, limits, and consequences as well as love, care and nurturing.
Whether at home, at school or at work, over-entitlement leads to selfish, insensitive, lazy, even defiant behaviour. Children, students and workers who are coddled and treated too permissively tend to aggravate their siblings, fellow students and colleagues, and are far less productive than they're capable of being.
Go forward and entitle yourself to a pedicure, a new book, a coffee with a friend, travel, a class, a promotion, or a workout at the gym. And the next time your kids ask you where you're going, flip 'em an eye roll and walk out the door.
Whenever I meet a Hummer, tension rises in my chest, unkind thoughts develop in my head and my hands tighten and tremble, as if they want to signal something. I've long wondered why that happens, and I think I've finally figured it out. It has something to do with a song, economics and the courteous way to walk your dog.
When former federal cabinet minister David Dingwall was questioned about a generous buyout package he received in 2006, his oft-quoted reply was, "I am entitled to my entitlements." It caused much outrage. But as the biblical expression goes, let whoever is without sin cast the first stone, because perhaps we're all a bit guilty of entitlement.
A growing sense of entitlement is leading to gun violence in the U.S. Many people think they are entitled to guns, and are entitled to control the lives of other people. But this isn't the case. Let's be clear -- in life, we are entitled to but one thing: our own lives. Apart from the air he breathed to help sustain his life, we are not entitled to anything else -- no person, no shooter, is entitled to kill anyone.
The New York Times editorial The Busy Trap is a justification for a generational sense of entitlement. A rationale underlying the newfound idea that we, Generation Y, are somehow not only entitled to a fulfilling career at the ripe old age of 22, we are also entitled to plenty of rest and relaxation. But whining about the barrage of emails and offering an escape to the south of France is hardly a solution. It is utterly laughable and disgustingly entitled.
In Aaron Sorkin's new drama, The Newsroom, the main character tells a twenty-something year old student that she is part of "without a doubt, the Worst. Generation. Ever." Well, that same description might better fit the Baby Boomer generation if they don't participate in fixing the problem they created for Generation Y.
