Lately I've been hearing the familiar notes of the entitlement song being trumpeted by most anyone with an opinion on the state of being in this country. A bi-partisan battle hymn about how American life is being dragged through the muck and mud of ineptitude by those that feel they're owed something/everything by everyone around them, simply because they were born here, seems to twist and turn every nearly-full belly.
Whether it be the cliche welfare and food stamps debate, or how long it takes my generation and latter to find/create their place in this world, all the way down to why more kids aren't starting musical bands "these days", we've come to accept a notion that being handed everything fosters an environment where the almost-immediate next-generation slips into malaise and general lack of interest in pursuing feats and endeavors requiring any amount of hard work or diligence.
Heck, as a bona fide selective-outrage-card carrying member of what I've been referring to as, "Generation Zzzzzzzzzzz", I've found myself espousing the same rhetoric and ideology, and I can say that I do believe it plays a large factor in a number of society's shortcomings and downfalls. FED LIONS SLEEP. Why try when the end of satisfaction seems nowhere in sight?
I get it. I see it. It's us.
But I want to chime in on one aspect of this debate that is not spoken of enough.
See, I feel like when I participate in or overhear conversations regarding entitlement, all the aforementioned common themes and subtexts of entitlement seem to revolve solely around inactivity as the agent of the poor and less fortunate. It exclusively acts as the header for items of laziness. And, I guess, to a large extent that's true. It is the most fertile ground for it to grow on.
What I don't understand is how entitlement is not lumped in with our current financial crisis and widening wealth divide. Why is it that when speaking of the injustices and crimes the wealthy elite have perpetrated when, say, gambling away futures on derivatives made of toxic mortgages, or improperly hedging loans and losing two billion dollars, the word greed is more often thrown around? Are they really different? Greed, like laziness, is the excrement of entitlement.
Is it so hard to believe that members of our "entitled generation" didn't just sink and become the grit on the bottom of society's glass? Maybe they were handed lavish educations, pursued powerful positions, and became the bitter froth on the rim as well. Because while some were at home subsisting on, "I want you to have all the things I didn't have. Wait there, honey; I'll get it for you.", others were being fed a steady diet of, "The world is your oyster. All's fair and acquire everything you can."
To me laziness and greed are opposing reactions to the same stimuli. And to simply place the burden of ineffectuality squarely on those with less will only leave the disease partially researched and thus resistant to treatment and control. Responsibility should be evenly distributed to all that take without first measuring it's effects on those around them. And taking without measure is the root of all our problems. Not just coddling.
YES, we are the generation that never turned off our bedroom light because someone was always there to tuck us in, but let's not forget that we are also the generation that never refilled the water bottle.
