 |
Lincoln
Steffens in 1894
Occupation: Muckraker |
Have
you ever found yourself under the authority of someone who wasn’t
entitled to that authority? Summarize the situation and your
reactions. (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page
1154).
I
have become less and less enamored of the concept of entitlement.
Barack Obama won the last election for president of the United
States. If I could speak with him personally, I would plead with him
not to become intoxicated with a sense of entitlement. He of course
holds the position legitimately – he won the last election. My hope
is that he will see his position in the light of legitimacy rather
than entitlement. Legitimacy is earned every day through fulfillment
of trust and requires ongoing vigilance and service. Entitlement
unfortunately seems to suggest that ongoing commitment is unnecessary
and that ownership is absolute. The fact of the matter is that
ownership of any type is never absolute—and this includes the
sacred roles of parenthood, property ownership…and president. The
United States Constitution includes a Bill of Rights. When this is
viewed as a bill of entitlements rather than a bill of
responsibilities we get overwhelmingly shameful and stupid notions
such as that everyone is unconditionally entitled to arm themselves
with military assault weapons. Entitlements are viewed as unlimited.
Nothing on God’s green earth is or should be unlimited.
Entitlement in this sense is fundamentally delusional. When I became
a member of my family through birth, I found love aplenty. But
nothing sabotages loving relationships more quickly than
self-righteous assumptions of entitlement acted out in spasms of
childish petulance…or the corrupting volatility of adult egotism.
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