“They proclaim that every man is entitled to exist without labor and — the laws of reality to the contrary notwithstanding — is entitled to receive his “minimum sustenance”: his food, his clothes, his shelter, with no effort on his part, as his due and his birthright. To receive it from whom?”
(Ayn Rand)
“If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he entitled to happiness?”
(Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but
they are not entitled to their own facts…”.
(Daniel Patrick Moynihan (at least as early as i ever heard it), U.S. Senator)
“Son, we Live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You, Kaffee? You, Lt. Weinburg? i have a greater responsibility here than You can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and You curse the Marines — You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what i know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved Lives — and my existence, while grotesque & incomprehensible to You, saves Lives. You don’t want the Truth, because deep down in places You don’t talk about at parties, You want me on that wall — You need me on that wall. We use words like “honor,” “code,” “loyalty.” We use these words as the backbone of a Life spent defending something — You use them as a punch line. i have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises & sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that i provide and then questions the manner in which i provide it. i would rather You just said “Thank You” and went on Your way. Otherwise, i suggest You pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, i don't give a damn what You think You are entitled to!”
(Jack Nicholson, as the character “Colonel Nathan R. Jessep” in A Few Good Men)
“Once in his life, every man is entitled
to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead…”.
(Lucille Ball)
There’s a storm coming. It’s worse than any tsunami or earthquake or flood that You’ve ever seen. It’s worse than the perfect storm. There’s a storm coming, and it is — unavoidable….
It’s a storm born of fiscal laziness untempered by discipline, spiritual anchorlessness adrift without any moorings to any secure land, emotional manipulation of either the most sinister intent by those with motives of pure evil disguised as patronage or of the most incompetent of best-intended consequences by those with motives of pure fantasy disguised as caring, and — worst of all — moral ineptitude bred from corruption run amuck. It is the storm of having to explain to a spoiled group of American citizenry children that daddy just doesn’t make enough money to keep them Living in the style to which they have become accustomed….
For those of You who think things were bad in 1930 or 2009, You have not yet seen “bad.” The U.S. economy is not sick with a cold from which it will recover — it is dying of a non-functioning liver that requires a transplant if there is any hope of keeping the patient aLive. And every single day that passes is a day closer to a death being speeded by the problem as opposed to a day closer to a death that would otherwise occur normally in a natural progression. Yes, it is True that we are all dying every day, but we all know that needing a transplant makes that death much more impending. So, let’s not play games here, unless we’re going to play Spades and everyone agrees to actually call a spade a spade….
You cannot dispute facts. It’s a problem many people can’t fathom in this postmodern world, since they are used to Truth being more like Play-Doh than like a rock. Still, the facts are the facts, and they are not in dispute — at least not on this subject. When You see governors from both sides of the aisle doing the same thing, You know the facts have been stipulated.
That’s why You see Jerry Brown (D – California) and other Demoncrats doing the same things as Chris Christie (R – New Jersey). Repugnicans may have decided to take action first and lead the way, but they aren’t alone. Everyone sees the storm coming, and there’s only one answer: a hard conversation with Grandma and an even harder one with Junior…
Here’s the conversation: “Grandma…Junior…we have something we have to tell You. i know we told You that we were going to have those cataracts removed, but we don’t have the money. And i know we said we were going to go vacation at Disneyland this summer, but we don’t have the money. And not only are we not going to get to do those things, but we are going to have to sell both of You into slavery. Please don’t be mad at how selfish we have been in the past, because we feel really bad about it now…”.
It’s amazing. If You’ve ever Lived in the Midwest and seen a tornado coming, You’ll know what i mean. First, there’s the eerie calm, the strange heat, the pensive feeling in the barometric pressure. Then, there’s the radio warning of a sighting. Then, the frantic neighbor who has come over to report first-hand the impending doom and to see, if perhaps, they can stay with You in Your cellar during the storm. Then, the terror of seeing it six miles away Yourself, the paralysis brought on by that strange human-only phenomenon of staring at the awful beauty of devastation, the last survey of the way things have always been before they no more bear any resemblance to the way they were before. The yanking of Your arm by a more clear-headed family member as they drag You underground…
You sit in the dimly lit cellar where a kerosene lantern flickers and strains in the oxygen-challenged room to provide Light to the huddled criers. You hear the roar overhead. You pray. You are thankful for the lock on the cellar from within and hope it will be enough. You cuddle with someone older or sit alone but not in isolation. Eventually, You resign…
Slowly, You emerge. Again, it is eerily quiet. No birds sings. No crickets chirp. Nothing.
You notice a house on top of the grove of trees — or at least what’s left of the house. The three cars that were in the driveway are gone. No sign of them…they just aren’t where they were and You don’t see them anywhere. You feel like You are standing in a freshly plowed field, except that this was the homestead where there used to be a windmill that pumped water for the animals and fences that corralled Livestock and a swing set and landscaping. No more….
That is what the American economy is about to look like in about three years, except that i have done a very poor job of describing how horrendous it will be. The only thing that will mitigate that result is the conversation i detailed above.
So, who wants to go get Grandma? Any volunteers to go round up the young ‘uns and get them in here for the family meeting? Yes, even the four-year old. Especially the four-year old. We really need to apologize to her. Slavery is a terrible thing for a child, and we won’t ever see her again, after all.
The essential problem is entitlement. Americans think they deserve stuff, literally. They think health care is a right. It’s not. They think liberty is a right. It’s not. They think happiness is a right. It’s not….
Along the way, our ancestors got greedy and (to make themselves feel better about becoming political gluttons in a pathetic attempt to justify themselves mentally and numb themselves spiritually) they decided on how the world should be. They decided they would be rich, beautiful, and popular. They decided they would have everything without reference to cost or sacrifice or labor. Old people not faring well? No problem, we’ll fix that. We’ll just invent money for them when they retire and everything will be fine. Never mind that most old people now are much worse off than before Social Security was invented. Never mind that most old people were never taught that Social Security was supposed to be just one leg of a three-legged stool (first explicitly espoused by, albeit in a different form, Reinhard A. Hohaus in 1949 in a speech to the Ohio Chamber Of Commerce but clearly coming from the intent and formulation of the Roosevelt initiatives of the 1930s) comprised of 1) private savings & investments and 2) private pensions (like an IRA) or company pensions (like a retirement from a company) alongside 3) the Social Security program (mandatory, government-stewarded investment). Never mind that old people have never benefited less and been more abused by bad calculations. Who knew that an inept calculator operator could ruin so many Lives?
Entitlement. It’s just a myth. There is no such thing. We are not entitled to anything. Even royalty is only granted its privileges based on the Power from Whom it derives its prominence and not because of its own supposed-and-not-real or demanded-but-not-innate superiority. Entitlement is not real — it is fabricated. Beware fabrications — they lead to ruin…
i would like to be entitled. Don’t get me wrong, it would be nice. Are You kidding? For people to owe me just because i’m a human or i’m 5’10” tall or i have brown eyes or i’m nice? Yea, that would be great. But the facts — and remember that they are not in dispute — are that no one owes me anything. Social Security? Well, yea, they owe me that, because they stole it from me to begin. But a guarantee of a good Life? A promise of health? An iron-clad covenant of happiness? No….
Tonight, when You tuck Your child in bed, rehearse Your speech on how You will tell them that slavery can be fun — an adventure, if You will. Consider how You will justify the marks on their back from the whips of ruthless people who not only don’t Love them, but will use their suffering for amusement. Formulate how You will put them at ease about being without instruction, without comfort, and without protection as they Live out their youth in constant fear and ceaseless agony during the period when You were supposed to be their caretaker. And then go eat Your bowl of ice cream that You bought with Your food stamp while You watch Your big screen that You put on a credit card and listen to the President’s State of the Union where he will defend borrowing money from the country which owns us to poorly educate our children who we do keep into inferiority. O, and don’t worry, i hear Chinese labor camps aren’t really all that bad. After all, we’re all entitled to something, right? And we’re Americans, so we must be entitled to serve the Chinese….
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