The entitlement infection of society has corrupted politics, polluted education and history, tarnished trust in government, the police, the courts and other civic institutions, as well as clouded basic personal interactions with one another.
The end result is what the American writer Charlie Sykes calls "a nation of moochers." Regardless of their wealth, power, gender, sexuality, race or religion, everyone wants something for free and resent anyone getting something they don't have. In other words, selfishness is the ugly root at all forms of discrimination.
In Canada, cranky old white men living off good pensions, as well as regular OAS payments from the government, sit in coffee shops and complain about the First Nations getting apologies and money and benefits. These Archie Bunker descendants know their own past and present reality but they won't acknowledge the past and present reality of Indigenous peoples. South of the border, the same old white guys with the same white privilege meet to complain about African-Americans and Hispanics.
As the comedian Chris Rock once rightly pointed out, "there's no white man that would ever trade places with me - and I'm rich." The point being that the perch of white male privilege rests on having more money and authority than women and minorities. In the eyes of Archie Bunker and his spiritual kin, this hierarchy is fair and proper.
They is triple blindness - not only do they not recognize their own "what about me?" whining for what it is but they forget that Archie was and remains a small, pitiful man deserving of only ridicule and they also refuse to face the reasons why others deserve the same rights, the same opportunities, the same benefits and the same respect for themselves.
White men discredit themselves and other white men when they publicly insist they are not racist or sexist or homophobic and then start listing the African countries they've visited, the First Nations art they own, the mothers, wives and daughters they love and the gay friends they have. This is bigotry viewed in a superficial single dimension, rather than as pervasive personal beliefs and discriminatory social structures still in place.
Far braver the white heterosexual man who commits to an ongoing effort to not discriminate against others and challenge others who continue to do so but also admits he is both the product and the continued beneficiary of a hierarchical society rooted in prejudice.
Before the old white guys feel too picked on, they aren't the only sinners. They're just the most obvious ones.
Great strides have been made to address historical injustices and make society more fair and inclusive, exposing the roots of selfishness that remain untouched. That's how the women who have benefitted from Margaret Atwood's words and wisdom can now attack her for not being feminist enough. That's how student activists can smear the reputations of professors with the audacity to ask questions and challenge beliefs. That's how righteousness overwhelms truth, how passion overwhelms prudence, how "what's in it for me?" is the question that defines the times, not "what can I do for you?"
Instead of trust and loyalty to one another, there are just transactions and a ledger.
The logical outcome of that cynicism is on full display in the highest offices of the land. In America, the current leadership and most of the rank-and-file members of the Republican Party have sold out their core beliefs of conservatism, of patriotism, of duty and of decency to cling to power and do business with a reality TV star who holds none of those ideals or traditions but talks as if he does. North of the border, the current leadership and rank-and-file members of the Liberal Party of Canada have sold out their core beliefs in liberalism, in progress, in positive change and righting wrongs to a pretender unfit to stand in his father's shadow, never mind share his name.
Both national leaders are the epitome of "what's in it for me?" but only one of them is honest enough to admit it.
Yet they are merely reflections of the society that enabled them.
"What can I do for you?" is far more than a polite question. It is the bond that holds a civil society together. It is the question for every employee who should celebrate, not resent, when employers making money and providing good jobs. It is the question for every employer who should welcome paying decent wages to talented, devoted staff. It is the question we should ask of our political leaders and they should ask of us in return.
It is also the question we should ask of one another in all of our social interactions, not just to our friends and families.
A rising tide raises all boats, after all, but only when entitlement becomes something we want everyone to have, not just those who look or act or believe as we do.
