Entitlements

Do you remember when the word “entitlement” was a positive word? It is a democratic word ~ you are entitled to certain things as being a member of this country, a citizen. The Bill of Rights is a list of entitlements. The Declaration of Independence is a statement of entitlements. The civil war was about entitlements that were in the constitution – “all men are created equal” – to make that a truth, a basic truth Lincoln saw in democracy. Geoffrey Nunberg writing in Bill Moyer’s blog talks about LBJ’s statement to the Republicans of his era about the entitlements in Medicare saying, “By God, you can’t treat Grandma this way. She’s entitled to it.” Entitlements were good, basic rights for the dignity of citizens of a democracy. And as the nation grew entitlements grew and we became better caretakers of our citizens. This took place especially after difficult times such as the Great Depression and we saw our citizens entitled to a more stable and good life and took the steps needed to make these entitlements a reality.

But recently the word seems to have a new and negative flavor. You got a real sense of that change after Paul Ryan became the Republican nominee for vice president. But with negative speak, entitlements became the belittlement of a generation who felt “entitled” expected things they did not deserve or work for. It is the old “damned welfare mothers” bit. Those worthless people don’t want to work, they are just lazy and making babies is a way to stealing our hard earned dollars for their life of laziness; as though living on welfare was like checking into a luxury hotel. It is the verbiage of self-righteousness as though all of us have not benefited by the infrastructure that enabled us to get where we are in our society. It is a form of class warfare as typified in the language of Romney when he wrote of the 47% of the country that would never vote for him. But he was convinced the privileged few, the wealthy would get him elected; a noblesse oblige argument.

Are the upper classes, like upper upper class, the top 1% of the top 1% entitled to half the wealth of the country? Did they earn it? Do they deserve because diligence and mental and moral superiority over the rest of us? No. They have it because they manipulated the government into giving them advantages, entitlements that others do not have. They benefitted from deregulation and the damage that does to a free enterprise system that Adam Smith saw from the beginning. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure a level playing field but now it seems to be working the other way.

Some refer to our times as the “post-truth era.” Nunberg believes that means more than people are just lying more than they used to; he sees it as the attitude that we are indifferent to truth; it just doesn’t matter anymore. I have called this the morality of efficacy. It is the idea that right and wrong is not very important, what is important is that it gives me/us what we want. It is bottom line thinking no matter what we do to get it. It is the ends justify the means argument and it seems to be more prevalent than ever and even lauded by folk that should know better.

The post truth era leads us to thinking there is global warming as that might interfere with my present lifestyle. It was the argument of birtherism the proven lie that Obama was not a natural born citizen of the country. Folk said it knowing it was untrue but it served their ends ~ a post truth.

We have experts in the post-truth era; Rush Limbaugh comes to mind. He will say outlandish things full well knowing they are not true, but they cater to the prejudices of his audience. It is and stock and trade of shock radio and TV programs.

Politicians can practice post-truth era verbiage with impunity and we just expect them to do it. We find it as Feeney says in the current popular phrase “right to work.” He gets into a lot of detail and history of the use of this phrase but we know it just means a way of attacking unions. (Labor unions can this “the right to free-load” laws; non union workers getting union benefits without the risk.)

It all sounds like “newspeak” from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Big Brother is watching you. Or, are we entitled to think such things?