Got Entitlement?

I remember a movie from the late 80's called "The Blood of Heroes". I thought it was hideous. The only merit to be found was in the action sequences. The plot, shallow and lacking originality tempted the viewer to stop watching at every moment. The only redeeming quality I could latch onto was that title.

There's been much debate about who heroes really are in the 21st century. Heroes, role models, mentors. These descriptors are bandied about daily and ascribed to the unworthy. Do you remember the professional basketball player Charles Barkley stating "I am not a role model"? Never had a truer statement been spoken. Barkley may have been a stud on the hard court but hardly a representative for model behavior. Bravo, Charles for that ounce of self-assessment.

Unfortunately the beat goes on and youths and adults alike speak, dress and behave in the manner of people they seen in movies, on television, performing sports or - steady yourself - active in politics. What is the criteria for these selections? Mass appeal to a demographic could be one. How about newness? A fresh voice or face or fashion becomes all the rage in our all-access society.

I think it's a boatload of bologna. As shallow as "The Blood of Heroes" plot. As ridiculous as calling Barkley a role model. Now take my hand. We're going to jump off from here into a new thought. As my son Jake likes to say, "Ready. Steady. Go!"

Picture yourself in a crowded place. The kind of place where you are jostled. You step on people's feet as often as you are bumped from behind. Are you the kind of person who goes out of your way to make room for others while going where you want to go? Or do you just steamroll into people regardless of any sense of reason? Most of don't. There's always the occasional person going upstream against the crowd or the person who is desperate not to be separated from their group for fear of being lost or the family terrified of being split apart in the crowd. I've been an actor in all those roles at some point - yes, even the idiot walking foolishly upstream against the waves of humanity.

But in that moment I didn't feel entitled to walk that path. Instead, I was urgently seeking something. An exit. A bathroom. A lost friend. I didn't inconvenience others because they were less important than me. And that's where all the rambling up to this point has been leading to - the entitled human.

You meet them all the team. They're memorable in their arrogance. The self-appointed most important people in the world. "Just imagine how fortunate you are for having been insulted and mistreated by me!" they think to themselves. And I have no doubt that these people think these kind of thoughts. The look can't be concealed in their faces. In their eyes. And I am an expert on people's eyes.

If you want to see if you're an expert on people's faces, take this little test and see if you can beat my score of 15 out of 20! http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/

So my thoughts burrow deeper into the origin of this kind of behavior. Treading upon other's dignity is such a foreign concept to me that I need help in understanding it. I guess if we were primitives fighting for survival, fighting for shelter, food, water or fire I could understand the disregard for strangers. But we live in a modern society where excess and waste surround us. We do not want for the necessities to survive. We want for luxury and status. Acceptance and envy. This is why we place little regard for those we don't know. It is not capitalism or industriousness or Darwinism or any other label. It is base selfishness and abhorrent in all its manifestations.

I can't elaborate now but it's been a struggle to post regularly and this topics been eating at me since the Rascal Story shared by my brother. Yes, people on Rascals are people too, but I think they're susceptible to the syndrome I've detailed. Maybe it's all a defense mechanism. I'm not sure. All I know is that the eyes don't lie.