Entitled America: Introduction

During my run this afternoon, amidst bobbing to the beat of a strange selection ranging from 80's hip hop to "stick a boot in your ass" country patriotism, I thought about the massive stretch of blog topic brainstorms inspired by a weekend with family and last Friday's heart-breaking tragedy.  Then, after an epiphany probed by a friend's status update, I cursed my lazy cardio-free weekend, and started writing.

With the wake of New Town's losses still weighing fresh in our hearts and minds, everyone seems to be hot on the topic of "gun control."  Toss with the concerns over the fiscal cliff's "budget control," Arizona's "birth control," New Mexico's "border control," and Westboro's "hate control," every Jim, John, and Jonas brother seem to have hands heavy a dozen long-stemmed opinions on how to "control the world."  It's a revolving door that no one seems to know how to evacuate.  The world is a tough thing to control, and society has been growing more and more centered on the "I" of "United."  And yet, the "self," it seems, has lost control.

Education systems are leaving everyone behind, diets neither require exercise nor sacrifice, bosses give out raises to the best fruit basket over the best work ethic, government officials snub their noses and screech functions to a sickening halt in favor of putting down their lollipops and compromise, even the military's standards have been forced to loosen their belts.  Everyone believes they deserve everything without any effort.  I'm sure there are parties out and about that would argue that all of these systems are "working," and I'm sure in some sense, they would be correct.  It's working so efficiently we can barely see past our own noses enough to inquire: "Are we creating a country of the entitled?"

I don't have an answer to that question, but I have a lot of theories.  And I'm going to spend a few days looking into those theories, doing some research, and finding some answers. Here begins a series on Entitled America. 

Tomorrow, I'll start a three-day series of essays, each day focusing on another entity that may have contributed to the entitled.  But I will do something that Facebook, Twitter, biased news conglomerates, and political extremists won't. Wrong or right, in support or against, I'm a journalist with integrity, dammit. And I'll tell you the truth, the informed truth, so help me God.   United I stand.