In a country that considers itself endlessly exceptional, and has throughout its history, it really shouldn’t shock anyone that this sense of entitlement can bleed through your pores without you even feeling it. It can come up with the sun and set with the moon, without your awareness.
In fact, I’d say that for better or worse, America is built on a sense of entitlement. The idea that we have found the better way, we have built the better way, and God Damn it, we are entitled to the better way.
Now, if you’re a Republican that means one thing, but don’t kid yourself that it doesn’t mean another just as powerful thing if you’re the most bleeding heart blue liberal in the land.
We all have a sense of entitlement in America. To the point we can’t begin to understand there are those who live in many other places in this world who don't understand the concept, haven't ever had a chance to experiment with it. A sense of entitlement is like breathing to us, but it is NOT the standard form of life, not historically, and not now in much of the world.
Is there something wrong with a sense of entitlement? Yes, and no. No, in that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a human being hoping for the best. Being a human being with enough self value to demand we are entitled to certain things. No, in
the sense that progress cannot be made WITHOUT a sense of individual AND community entitlement.
But wrong, yes, in the sense of our collective demands on both side of the partisan divide, that are shockingly blind to historical perspective, each side so sure they have suffered the worst the word has to offer. Each side in their own way a victim to their own uniquely American sense of entitlement.
The recent mid terms put another crack in my heart. I am a bleeding heart liberal, albeit one with a strong pragmatic strain, and thankful for it. I understand the sense of frustration and outrage that every progressive/liberal/run of the road Democratic voter may feel at our stinging loss.
I also understand AND appreciate the many committed folks on this site who have tried to make sense of it all, and hey, I’m just one more. There is no ONE reason we lost so badly 2 nights ago. There’s at least 10 I can think of, but y’all have covered them, plus.
What gets to me after all that, is the worst side of entitlement. Those who have in our instant everything world, lost sight of the fact that there were those who came before us who suffered and fought for DECADES, through endless elections and heart breaking betrayals to gain an inch.
The civil rights of and respect towards black Americans, native Americans, and gay Americans comes immediately to mind, as does the struggle of women to be treated as equal partners in this country, on every level from the home to place of work, to the political foundations of this country.
And that does not even begin to address the world outside of America, the long history of oppression and wrongs, so many so much more heinous than our sense of entitlement allows us to imagine. But the fact is, many a human being just like you and me, suffered things we today cannot begin to imagine. And many a human being on this earth STILL suffers things we cannot begin to imagine.
These last mid terms are but a moment in time, and if you have studied American history, or any history, you know the truth of that, let alone the opposite of history---the incessantly “current” media voice for which this week’s Democratic loss is already well on its way to history. They’re on to the next horse race! How will the Democratic party pull itself out of the muck? How will the Republican party deal with its shiny new double edged victory?
This post is not meant to argue with anyone, or to dismiss the many excellent posts
here trying to sum the hell of it all up. What this post is about in the end is nothing more than the difficulties of sheer humility---something the zeitgeist of this country makes difficult for us, no matter what side we’re on.
The Buddhists have a thing called “I don’t know consciousness”---a nonjudgemental
observer state of mind, a flip flop of the victim consciousness to that of the witness with perspective.
In my rather longer life, I’ve seen enormous damage done by knee jerk reactions, personally, professionally and politically. The idea that we can solve, sum up, make up for, explain, or change what went wrong here anytime real soon, is again, on the wrong side of entitlement, because it suggests the reason of the place is that we deserved better, and if that’s the foundation of all things, we can see how often that has failed throughout time.
What we CAN do is pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the fight anew
however each of us defines that. If we are at all conscious, we will all die with the experience of questions unanswered, blistering inequalities and unfairness, and insufferable outrages.
Nothing new under the sun there. BUT, I do believe we can evolve, and history says in many ways we have. However, the speed of our evolution will depend on us balancing our sense of entitlement, weeding out the good in it, and putting down the bad in it---so that we can live to fight another day without crippling bitterness, and hasty and impatient conclusions that won’t stand up to the test of time. Time is our ultimate master and it’s both cruel and benevolent.
AND, in-between all those challenges, my dear fellow Kossacks, find time to enjoy the very sweet things in life. Even after this loss, they are still there, just waiting for us to breathe them in, to refresh us, to remind us that life is both hard and joyful in equal parts. And we are really not entitled to anything more.