Welp, my brain apparently hasnt wrapped itself fully around the fact that I can sleep in on the weekends. So for the past 3 hours or so, I just lie there on my bed, trying at first to catch a few more hours of sleep. My mind, however, was completely awake, and I started thinking. My thoughts turned mainly to issues I never really have time to think about during the day. One issue that worries me a bit, I decided to simply wright about. So without further ado, heres a long-winded, not-so-very-ranty-at-all rant about the growing Culture of Entitlement. Enjoy, and if you read it all, your reward will make sense if you pay attention to anything the rant rants about. ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Trophies, medals, ribbons; these are only three physical examples of the term REWARD. A reward is, simply put, recognition for an act that deserves to be recognized. A reward does not even have to be a physical object. It can be as simple as the pride that a craftsman feels as he steps back to admire a hard job finally finished. But whether the reward is a tangible thing you can display for the world to see, or just a sense of accomplishment that you can only share with yourself, the reward can only be valuable to those who attain it if the road that led them to it was at least somewhat long and, perhaps, even difficult here or there. To be considered a reward at all, the recognition needs to be given to the elite few in a group of many, and every individual in the group must strive to do their best. What it truly comes down to, however, is that inner pride that is felt by the individual who knows without a doubt that they got as far as they did because of their skills and determination, with little to no outside help. This is where the issues of entitlement and apathy in todays current culture comes from, and there are two primary causes; the first, and much lesser, is cheating to achieve ones goal. While an individual may need a certain amount of ingenuity to be able to cheat effectively, this is an effort (and, depending on the situation, skills) that the person in question could instead have applied to gaining the reward honestly. The cheater will almost always manage to convince themselves that cheating is much easier than simply doing their task honestly, though in many ways it is the exact opposite. Its reasonable to say, then, that cheating ( which, at its core, is a social/moral dilemma that would leave the average person feeling some degree of guilt) would sooner or later turn whatever pride the false winner had managed to gain from their achievement into a sour husk of regret, resentment, or even anger. The second, (and by far most widespread and fastest spreading) cause of apathetic and entitled sentiments today is the destruction of the very core of what makes rewards worth striving for in the first place; the aforementioned pride of achievement, through which an individual truly grows, learns, and collects valuable life lessons that theyll need to be successful (or at the very least to be happy) later in their lives. Imagine a middle aged person today who, their entire life, had had everything theyd ever needed and wanted handed to them as soon as they expressed their need/want. Spoiled rotten as a child, this individual has never needed to apply or even truly develop any skills necessary to achieve/attain the NEEDS that theyd have to posses to achieve/attain their WANTS, on their own. As a child in school, they had at first applied themselves at academics and athletics, but when they noticed that many of their classmates were receiving identical treatment and/or rewards for far less or even no effort at all, they decided that, rather than working hard to gain rewards that could be obtained by doing nothing, theyd do just that; little to no effort. And from grade school through college, this person is content to simply skate through life, being treated (and told, repeatedly) as though they were special, had potential, that theyd never fail; all of this would, as this persons life had been steered so far, all turn out to be false. FALSE rewards, from childhood till today, would have almost certainly ruined this individuals chances at a truly fulfilling life. When that sense of pride that fills you (after you use skills, determination, and honest hard work to complete a task) is taken out of the equation (because you didnt actually work at it or apply yourself at all) yet youre still rewarded for a job well done, it renders the reward (whether its a trophy, medal, or a ribbon) completely meaningless. The physical rewards, the trophies, medals, and ribbons, serve only two real purposes; to show others that you take pride in the skills that make up your character, and to serve as a reminder to yourself that hard work pays off. But in the end, theyre only trinkets; the only true purpose behind rewarding hard work is to give everyone something to contend with each other over, for only with healthy, natural contention between individuals can we move forward together, improving over time as a whole. Ill leave you something to think on; imagine a world in which no one applies themselves, not simply because they dont want to, but because they dont HAVE to (and never have). This world would contain billions of people who truly believe that they deserve to be rewarded for nothing, for no reason other than that all of the authority figures in their lives (parents, teachers, government) have told them that this is true. Pay close attention to this looming Culture of Entitlement; it could be a lot closer than you might believe.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 12:56:09 +0000
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