Published on 12, July, 2020
Why do so many people have a sense of entitlement?
I was discussing this with a friend at the weekend and we couldn't really get to the bottom of it, other than perhaps it's just been a slow erosion of society and work ethic.
They don't work, but are entitled to (net) taxpayers money, so they can have things that taxpayers can't afford, to live in areas that those taxpayers can't afford, to have holidays, to not work a job they don't want to, to be entitled to an easy and well paid job. That they have "rights" that must be treated as gospel, but not any responsibilities that are tied to those rights. That rules are just for "someone else", a whole attitude that everyone else owes them a living etc.
What is the flawed mental process where people decide that they are entitled to things just because they want them? How can anyone even attempt to justify that "want" means "entitled"?
One word. Thatcher. She created it. Said 'Greed is good'. Said 'Let the rich get richer.' Introduced 'right to buy' for council tenants. It matters not if it was a Labour party idea. She introduced it for different reasons: personal enrichment. I'm now in my 60s, so can remember a time still when the post-war spirit of 'help each other out' was still there in society. The welfare state, brought in by the Attlee government in the late 1940s, was a good thing. It created a system in which those at the bottom of the ladder could be supported to help them through. It gave us a National Health Service, with health care free at the point of service for a national insurance contribution. It was a time when we were all pulling together for the common good. It was a time when we were all trying to look after one another.
Thatcher destroyed a lot of that. For her, it was every man and woman for themselves. She destroyed communities in the name of 'economic reform'. She created a society in which the over-riding ethos was 'look after yourself first.' The generations since then have grown up with the sense of entitlement of which you speak. 'I'm entitled to own my own home. I'm entitled to private healthcare. I'm entitled to look after myself, and sod the rest.'
People will be sold on the crap peddled by the right-wing media - that the sick and unemployed are the biggest drain on society. They'll believe crap TV programmes like 'Benefits Street', which portray benefit claimants as malingerers and scroungers, draining society - whereas the true culprits are those at the top, busting our banks but still taking huge bonuses because we're bailing them out, playing roulette with our savings, selling us [removed by moderator] and then blaming us for accepting it. Tax evaders and avoiders likewise. All they want is what's good for them - because they're somehow 'entitled'.
Turn your head around a bit and look at the agenda behind it all. Blame the unemployed. Blame the sick. Blame the immigrants. Keep your focus on blaming them. That way, the ones that are truly bleeding society can continue to get away with it.
[Edited by Ayshe Mod]
Bicycle said:Turn your head around a bit and look at the agenda behind it all. Blame the unemployed. Blame the sick. Blame the immigrants. Keep your focus on blaming them. That way, the ones that are truly bleeding society can continue to get away with it.
The 'Blame' game is an insidious and pervasive social deviation that involves Authoritarian role transfers of responsibility. This has developed, as normalised abuse, involving the collectively shared and enforced delusions of inferiority, i.e. that people are inferior, mediocre and superior to self and or others, which further perpetuates the ability to react in an instinctual, subconscious or unwitting manner ~ as in the sense of lashing out at or persecuting others that are assumed to be more or less inferior.
Crime and punishment on this basis is an enforced state of mind and body, where rehabilitation is largely ignored for the sake of at least psychological assassination, keeping in mind that people are being murdered on the streets, or at least allowed to starve or freeze to death whether housed or not, which serves as a warning to everybody so afflicted, or yet to be afflicted, by the abuse of which.
Condemnation is by far the much lesser need, and rehabilitation by far more the greater need ~ in society as a whole. Both environmental and sociological pollution are the main cause of the present sufferings and deaths in humanity and otherwise.
The environmental pollution began with increasing volcanically activity about 15,000 years ago, along with the resulting psychological and physiological pollution becoming as it has since. When humans are for instance denied oxygen, they tend to become giggly as if in that way drunk, whereas when toxic pollutants are introduced and oxygen absorption decreases, humans become niggly as if in that way drunk.
A few examples for further reading:
30 Apr 2016 - Indeed many volcanic eruptions are followed by climatic unrest, leading to war, starvation and epidemics. The exact cause of the LIA unknown, but volcanoes may have played a role. Volcanoes can influence the atmosphere - and therefore the climate - for years and on a global scale. Until 1980, it was ...
7 Apr 2014 - No school textbook I've seen mentions that only two months before Napoleon's final defeat in Belgium on June 18, 1815, the faraway Indonesian island of Sumbawa was the site of the most devastating volcanic eruption on Earth in thousands of years. The death toll claimed around 100,000 people, from the ...
And 40 years on from Thatcher now look where we are
Typical MattBucks. Can't come up with a decent reply, so goes to the social media default of clicking 'Unlike'. 1st item on my bucket list. [ Removed by moderator]
That’s an interesting idea, well said. However, it is imperative that people help themselves first. Even on an aeroplane, parents are advised to put the oxygen mask on themselves before they attend to their children.
The rich have always got richer, because of their mindsets and they will carry on getting richer. That doesn’t prevent poor people from getting richer as well though and many poor people do get richer.
I agree, there was much more social cohesion and support amongst neighbours etc in the pre war era. I am always working towards getting back to these times. I consciously smile and say hello to everyone I meet and stop and speak to those who want to chat. I get involved in local projects, either for my own benefit or as a volunteer or to get involved in some way, even if it’s only to say hello. I go to the dementia cafes and care homes, just to say hello to people, to get to know them. I grew up in a tight night community so this is what I know. I met a man today, at a job centre event, we chatted and bumped into each other twice. I love connecting with new people. I have to look after myself, too much human contact is not good for me but now I have my diagnosis, I can manage my energy levels better. But yeah, I love community spirit and friendships.
We are living in incredible times. It blows my mind how much help I’m getting towards starting my own business. Working in your normal typical work environment just didn’t work for me. I couldn’t sustain employment for stretches of more than three years and I didn’t know why. Now I understand why and can see that I would fare much better in employment now with adjustments etc, but alas, I’ve decided to work for myself anyway and the local council and other services are falling over backwards to help me and people like me who would like to work for purse but haven’t got a clue how to go about that. The country has been through some incredibly difficult years, since Thatcher came to power. Nobody can deny that. I’m from a mining family and mining village and was around when all the pits started to close. There was a lot of community support around still at that time though which is sadly barely noticeable now.
Certainly my local council are working towards a more preventative and community based model of support now and I’m truly grateful for their ongoing support to me. I found out today of many low coating comminity based activities such as yoga, music, art and getting active outside. So I’m very happy to see more and more community projects springing up and more and more people getting benefit from them. I don’t know where I’d be today without the help of my support worker, in bed still probably, provided they continued to pay my rent.
Governmemt figures, which are publicly available, show that there is more money going into the economy than out and that the scaremongering about benefits frauds etc, is just that. As someone said, it’s a great distraction technique to blame those who don’t have a voice to defend themselves.