Hardly a day goes by that we do not hear about a famous sports player breaking societal rules for his or her own personal deviant desires. Whether it is marital infidelity, unscrupulous financial dealings, or just the case of the sensationalized beloved being jerks to their followers, there is an undeniable trend that some believe that all is owed to them no questions asked.
Of course this is not just a phenomenon predominant in the sports industry. It is a mental state of mind that brings about the arrogant belief of entitlement, the idea that a person deserves everything at once just for being who they are despite their personal actions. Cases of entitlement gone bad at times catch the public’s attention with out-of-control sports figures, those who fail to conform to team rules and create general chaos on and off the field, and then complain that they were not given their fair share of time to play, bonus dollars to perform, or face time in front of the camera.
The transition from sports to politics is made easily by listening to the actual architect of the entitlement philosophy (the modern day liberal). Even today, the microphones are still warm from the liberal breath of former Bill Clinton political mouthpiece James Carville and his statements that allude to entitlement. Carville said about this year’s Super Bowl that other than people living in Indianapolis, anyone who did not root for the New Orleans Saints was less of a human being. With his snappy Cajun style of banter, Carville fused the New Orleans Saints football team with years of economic and racial inequality to frame a football team that Americans should not just support because of love of team, but because they deserve to win because they are who they are, entitled.
This same bold challenge to defy the entitled at the ballot box was recently thrust at Scott Brown in his historic upset win in Massachusetts. Liberals found it distasteful that a Republican would have the audacity to even run in an election on a ballot that once held the name of Ted Kennedy. We see the same entitlement mentality on the defiant lips of people like Bertha Lewis from the infamous brothel-builders at ACORN. The idea that their organization should be punished with investigative probes or withdrawn governmental funding is a foreign concept that has no potential to become a reality, because in the minds of the entitled, they are deserving of the rewards they receive simply by their state of existence.
Whether it is the million-dollar crybabies that derail great sports teams, or the loudmouth politicians that throw away party voting majorities, or anywhere it is found in society, the entitlement mentality will continue to be a destructive force. While the “entitled” of the world are doomed to their own self-designed demise, their effect can be minimized if we educate the next generation to reject this flawed, destructive mindset. For the future of our youth, we must reject the notion to allow entitlement to continue despite the volume with which we are instructed otherwise. We must take the time to show our children why liberalism itself creates such negative by-products as entitlement, and highlight the ever-present examples of individuals who go down in flames clutching blindly to entitlement as though it will save them. Despite the pervasive nature of entitlement within the culture today, it is not unachievable to create a future where success and all the adulations that come with it are based on what one does by his or her own hand, and not through the blind fallacies of entitlement.
Dr. Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of several books and is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 award winning, Conscience of Kansas airing across the state.
