Combating the Entitlement Age

Entitlement is one of the most dangerous threats I see to creativity, human development, and even happiness. It will destroy the concept of individualism, inhibit hard work, and destroy passion.

But what exactly is entitlement? Entitlement is the process by which a group with more power loses confidence in a lower group. The more powerful group then sees it as a responsibility to ensure the lower group’s survivability. It does this by giving the lower group, at no or very little cost, the things they want. The operative word is "want." It’s not a discussion of need, but want.

Entitlement is destroying all that is good about free will because it removes the need to think for yourself. No longer will people be rewarded for the success of thinking. There are no rewards. You want something? Here you go.

The barriers are disappearing. The great, and most certainly arduous, path people once took to achieve something is eroding. Most people think that it’s the things they want that will better them. It’s not. It’s the path they took to get those things that truly empowers them.

With this path gone, there’s nothing. People will cease to develop. In a sense, a class of drones will be created who complete the minimum and expect the maximum. Individualism will no longer exist because it’s by taking the path toward a goal that our individualistic nature thrives.

Entitlement is only one half of the overall problem. The other side consists of the enablers. The more powerful groups who facilitate the loss of individualism, who destroy the path that was once admired, and who try to promise the world to people who are now being cultivated to have no desire to do anything with it.