Authored by Stephanie Shepard via The Burning Platform blog,
For years I’ve heard the media and experts spout off about how the country is doomed because of a entitlement mentality. This also extents to calling my generation a group of narcissists who can’t be bothered to set their phones down long enough to realize they’re driving into on coming traffic.
As much as I’d like to disagree with the full blown entitlement in our country or jump on the bandwagon, it’s not the entitled I blame. It’s the enablers who perpetuate this problem.
When campus brats were protesting against whatever SJW click-bait worthy issue of the month I kept asking myself a very simple question, “Where are the grown ups”? Why are the school administrators putting up with this crap? Why are they letting a bunch of nobodies destroy their University’s credibility?
Because they’re enablers too cowardly to do anything about it.
It took me awhile to understand the entitlement accusations. Partly because I was never exposed to such an extreme version of this mindset. Every young person is going to feel entitled until they have a enough life experiences to know better.
They’ll believe they deserve a job they didn’t earn because they have no idea how the person currently filling that position earned their job. They’ll feel they’re entitled to other people’s time because they don’t realize some people have a full to-do list of responsibilities and obligations. They’ll assume they can say or do whatever they wish until they’re met with real world consequences for their actions.
This is where enablers come in and ruin the day. See, when someone is being a jackass usually people don’t want to associate with them. Their behavior results in the natural consequence of, “To hell with this guy” and they stop interacting with them. Enablers disrupt the natural progression from actions to consequences.
Anytime an enabler coddles or tries to prevent people from experiencing natural consequences the entitlement mindset continues. It baffles me how far enablers will go to spare someone’s feelings and prevent them from experiencing natural consequences.
Tell Them “No”
Time to put on your best Nancy Reagan impression and just say “No”.
No, I won’t lend you money. No, I won’t work on my day off. No, you can’t borrow my car. No, I won’t babysit for you. No, I won’t bail you out of jail. No, I won’t wash the skid marks out of your underwear.
While saying “No” firmly and creating a boundary is a straightforward way of responding to being imposed upon, it does come with its own natural consequence. There’s a lot of people who aren’t used to being told “No” and will respond with a temper tantrum. Or they’ll give you the silent treatment for having the audacity of not jumping to their beat.
Move Out Of The Way
The easiest way to get rid of entitlement mentality is to step out of the way and let them jump off the cliff without the parachute.
You don’t have to try to reason with them about how jumping off a cliff is risky or jumping without a parachute is fatal.
Don’t Rescue Them
So you’ve let the know-it-all daredevil jump off the cliff and they’re still alive. By some miracle a bush like tree broke their fall. They’re bloodied, bruised, and hanging from a branch. But, they’re still alive. The next step is to not go searching for a ladder to get them down from the tree. After all, you might get sued for whatever bullshit reason. Call the paramedics and let them take care of their own problems.
Stepping aside and letting people suffer the consequences of their decisions is the only way to get rid of entitlement mentality.