DFW Metroplex – Been a while since I’ve hit the blog but all of this malarky of how people are dealing with the recent election has me up blogging before 0600 and I need to get these thoughts down before I put in ‘that work”.

Let’s begin the Tuesday ‘bitch session” shall we?…..

Here…WE…GO!

America…YOU HAVE AN ENTITLEMENT PROBLEM.

There I said it.

Fight me if you want but it’s time we talk about this ugly elephant in the conversation.

And NO, I’m not talking about the Grand Ole Party specifically although politics is definitely the diet this beast thrives on as a favorite snack.

But we need to talk about this because people need to understand that we have a systemic health issue in this country and this damn disease just permeates everywhere and on EVERYTHING.

Let me repeat…WE HAVE AN ENTITLEMENT DISEASE.

For anyone to think that it is perfectly okay to have the current POTUS, a man who is headed out the back door in American politics, to be able to pick up the phone and call state elected officials during one of the most important times of our democracy believes that WE are entitled to just interrupt a process that makes this country the greatest country in the world. They feel this man is ENTITLED to do this and it’s okay with them.

It’s not okay and if you think it’s okay, then you feel entitled to interfere in matters that are out of your control.

Oh sure, a person who is entitled will slap all kinds of ‘reason’ labels on their actions and we all know the usual stuff that is going around right now in the political climate. But if you cannot reasonably ascertain put together viable evidence that can hold up to honest scrutiny in the public sphere, then you will continue to go down the path of thinking everybody else is wrong and you’re right.

More on that thought process in a bit.

If you think that your first amendment right to peacefully protest means you are going to walk up to a person’s house and start screaming at them through a megaphone as if they are the “problem”, then again you are thinking you are entitled to just do what you please without any consequence or forethought as to what may not be okay. And I don’t care if you are walking through the private streets of a neighborhood in St. Louis or down a public street in Detroit; it’s actually a bad idea on so many levels; namely, there is no line of demarcation and now ‘protests’ are free game on any street.

While I’m at it…burning down buildings, threatening elected officials, putting those who are simply doing their jobs in a position where they are fearing for their personal safety, it’s wrong. Full stop.

But do you know why it happens?

ENTITLEMENT. That’s why.

The way we are handling this election, the way we react when a 17 year old is charged with a heinous crime, the way we rationalize irrational actions of grown people who are “in power” of some sort, is telling in this country.

We will sweep practically any bad behavior from said individuals under the rug if the ends justify the means; or at least what we think are the “means” of said actions we believe.

What sad is that many of us do not realize that instead of allowing our own upbringings guide us to good, rational, logical conclusions, we allow ourselves to be influenced in some really bad sectors of the ‘techknosphere’; aka ‘social media’.

Our compulsion for gobbling all things social media actually provides so many the unhealthy diet of what is called the illusory truth effect. And it is that steady diet of misinformation, wild stories and an unwillingness to believe that sometimes what you see is not real, combined with thinking that ‘my way is the right way’ process brings us to why I said we have an entitlement problem.

WE AS A COUNTRY HAVE AN ENTITLEMENT PROBLEM…and we’re on the wrong side of this.

“We” need to realize that we have some stinky draws, breath and body order as a collective country.

Sure we are definitely the place to be if you want to make your dreams come true. For millions of people in this world, we are that shining beacon on the hill.

But that shiny beacon needs to clean the spheric glass in front of that lightbulb.

We need to change out the filter we have in front of the glass.

We need to switch out this new age LED bulb and put back in the old fashioned regular filament type that may not have had a great shelf life but allowed us to every few years swap it out for a new one because we did a self check on our “righteousness”.

Let me close with a story that many may not relate to but a few of us had.

In case many don’t know, I LOVE spending time in London. Heck actually thinking about how to make a pilgrimage there for a few months out of the year.

It was during a fairly recent trip across the pond, during the last week in October of 2018 when the Jacksonville Jaguars were taking on the Philadelphia Eagles at Wimbley stadium, I was downstairs at the hotel bar chatting up with a gentleman who was from my second home, Cincinnati. We were chatting it up with a few InfoTech consultants from various companies.

What we were discussing was an issue that just troubled us all; the entitlement of the American citizen.

One gentleman said that sometimes he feels so ashamed about how ‘we’ act overseas that he has to apologize for something that he didn’t even do.

And he’s not alone.

I’ve got plenty of friends who live overseas and this isn’t the first time that haven’t heard an American “apologize for the rest of us”.

And then it hit me today after just responding to one of my friends on social media.

He nailed the problem; the American Entitlement.

The reason why this makes perfect sense is that when I start piecing together my own conversations with others from around the world, how I field questions when they ask about why certain things in this country are what they are, I too find myself wanting to say outwardly, “forgive them for what they do not know or do”. Sometimes I too want to apologize for the dumb shit we just do in this country.

Let me circle back to that beacon on the hill I mentioned.

The beacon has a mirror lens in it and while it may project out this really bright light that beckons any all, on the flip side we have some really big scratches that are stopping us from being who we really use to be; almost ‘pristinie’ in our beliefs in our systems.

This entitlement that we have is blocking that once brilliant process of acceptance of fact.

It’s denying a true ability to see the flaws for what they are, fix them on the next go round and continue to be evolutionary in portraying the ideals that are essential to that beacon drawing the best and the brightest to us; even if they just want to come work here.

It’s this warped sense of entitlement that has really come to fruition in the last four years or so.

Don’t get this twisted. This entitlement I speak of has been floating around for the last two decades or so but its brashness has only come to prominence right now. And ironically it has a really ugly side of it; or side effects as my medical friends would say.

I’m not here to pass a judgment on anyone but I definitely want to raise an awareness that is seeping out past these shorelines.

Our democracy is on FULL DISPLAY right now and if you don’t think there are those in other countries talking about how we are handling this matter, you’re dreaming.

And if you don’t think that matters, then you haven’t traveled outside this country.

You’ve heard too many people on your favorite broadcasts talk about the standing of this country on a world stage.

Whether you like it or not, the reflection of that world stage starts with how WE as a nation handle our civic trepidations, issues, etc.

This entitlement bug we got is making us look like we are the biggest brats in the world.

And while WE MAY be just that, it shouldn’t be so damn obvious.

I’ve often said to folk, “if you are going to sell me dog food, you need to be eating that brand you selling”.

It’s another way of saying, “if you gonna talk that talk, you have to walk that walk.”

With how many of us have embraced conspiracies and not wanting to let logic dictate the thoughts one may have, the illusory truth effect becomes your compass and the ugly American entitlement is your foundation to justify a lot of things that would normally make no sense.

Let me repeat this…WE HAVE AN ENTITLEMENT PROBLEM people and it goes beyond our politic squabbles.

It has seeped into the very core of this country as to who and what we are.

As a collective body we need to go “clean the beacon” while we still can or else our world stage may be our final curtain call.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gregory Moore is a former syndicated columnist and managing editor of a weekly newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. Now residing in the DFW metroplex, he occasionally dusts off the typewriter and espouses his views of just society at large.