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I was going to reply to the parent saying, "He's not saying he's entitled to anything! He just doesn't like his situation and wants to change it!".. and then I

I was going to reply to the parent saying, "He's not saying he's entitled to anything! He just doesn't like his situation and wants to change it!".. and then I realized the author replied first, and indeed is asserting he's entitled to happiness? What was the point of any of that hard work? Maybe there was no point, maybe he/you made a mistake. From where do you derive entitlement? If you live in the United States you're entitled to the _pursuit_ of happiness. Go, pursue it, but your career choices and mistakes are your own. No one owes you anything.

moron4hire 11y ago
Alright, fine, we don't deserve anything. We don't deserve to be treated like children. We don't deserve to have the majority of our productivity either stymied or taken from us and bastardized. We don't deserve to be told "do this for us and we'll take care of you" and that turns out to be nothing. Yeah, there's a lot we don't deserve. I'm owed what I was promised. I was promised "pass these tests, you can get into any grad school or company you want." That didn't happen. I was promised, "finish this project, and you'll get a raise and to run the next one your way." That never happened. I was promised a lot of things, and because I don't have a rich daddy to threaten people with a lawsuit for breaking those promises, I get told it's my fault for expecting anything. As I said before. Eff. That. Noise. Your rules suck. I choose my own.
- jacalata 11y ago
  So what are you going to do then?
- solipsism 11y ago
  Keep on insisting you're owed what you were promised, and keep on saying "Eff. That. Noise." See how far it gets you. My rules may suck, but they have the advantage of being reality. But you probably have your own reality? Great, just don't be surprised if you're the only one living in it.
  - tomreece 11y ago
    I don't understand why this discussion is about entitlement. I thought this was the american dream? You work hard, you make something of yourself. Things go your way. Things are going well enough my way, but I'm not happy. I don't want it. Hell, give me a lobotomy and erase my education from me. In return, absolve me of my student loans. Let me start over and try again. I can't even do that because I'm in so much debt that switching careers is not even feasible. I have to program to pay these loans. I wouldn't survive without a programmers salary, but I don't even want the money. That's the part that kills me.
    - solipsism 11y ago
      I also don't understand why it ever was about entitlement. Your blog post wasn't about entitlement. I don't understand why grillvogel made the original joke about entitlement. And I was about to say that, when I read that you replied that indeed the entitlement is strong in you. That's why this is about entitlement now. Because you said it is.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 11y ago
    What kind of defeatist attitude is that? "Reality sucks and you can't change it"? Where would our lord Steve Jobs be if he thought like that? Seriously though. If you don't like the hand you're dealt, you try to change it. How is that unrealistic, or unlike what most people do? And how is it unreasonable to fervently wish to have it better in life than what you do? Why is it entitled? There's nothing more common-sense, down-to-earth, than that. Otherwise, what the hell are you striving for?
    - solipsism 11y ago
      I don't understand how you get "Reality sucks and you can't change it" from anything I said. The part of reality that we're talking about, that I said sucks, is the rule that says that you are not entitled to anything. No matter how hard you work, no matter what tests you took, no matter what they told you would happen if you paid tens of thousands of dollars for school, you are entitled to nothing! Like everyone else who isn't lucky enough to have it all handed to him, you'll have to continue to claw and scratch and struggle to survive and to create wealth and to get the things you want. When did I say you shouldn't try to change the hand you're dealt? Absolutely you should! If you don't like the status quo, turn it over! How do you confuse "No one owes you anything" with "you should not try to change anything"?

moron4hire 11y ago

Alright, fine, we don't deserve anything. We don't deserve to be treated like children. We don't deserve to have the majority of our productivity either stymied or taken from us and bastardized. We don't deserve to be told "do this for us and we'll take care of you" and that turns out to be nothing. Yeah, there's a lot we don't deserve. I'm owed what I was promised. I was promised "pass these tests, you can get into any grad school or company you want." That didn't happen. I was promised, "finish this project, and you'll get a raise and to run the next one your way." That never happened. I was promised a lot of things, and because I don't have a rich daddy to threaten people with a lawsuit for breaking those promises, I get told it's my fault for expecting anything. As I said before. Eff. That. Noise. Your rules suck. I choose my own.

jacalata 11y ago
So what are you going to do then?
solipsism 11y ago
Keep on insisting you're owed what you were promised, and keep on saying "Eff. That. Noise." See how far it gets you. My rules may suck, but they have the advantage of being reality. But you probably have your own reality? Great, just don't be surprised if you're the only one living in it.
- tomreece 11y ago
  I don't understand why this discussion is about entitlement. I thought this was the american dream? You work hard, you make something of yourself. Things go your way. Things are going well enough my way, but I'm not happy. I don't want it. Hell, give me a lobotomy and erase my education from me. In return, absolve me of my student loans. Let me start over and try again. I can't even do that because I'm in so much debt that switching careers is not even feasible. I have to program to pay these loans. I wouldn't survive without a programmers salary, but I don't even want the money. That's the part that kills me.
  - solipsism 11y ago
    I also don't understand why it ever was about entitlement. Your blog post wasn't about entitlement. I don't understand why grillvogel made the original joke about entitlement. And I was about to say that, when I read that you replied that indeed the entitlement is strong in you. That's why this is about entitlement now. Because you said it is.
- YeGoblynQueenne 11y ago
  What kind of defeatist attitude is that? "Reality sucks and you can't change it"? Where would our lord Steve Jobs be if he thought like that? Seriously though. If you don't like the hand you're dealt, you try to change it. How is that unrealistic, or unlike what most people do? And how is it unreasonable to fervently wish to have it better in life than what you do? Why is it entitled? There's nothing more common-sense, down-to-earth, than that. Otherwise, what the hell are you striving for?
  - solipsism 11y ago
    I don't understand how you get "Reality sucks and you can't change it" from anything I said. The part of reality that we're talking about, that I said sucks, is the rule that says that you are not entitled to anything. No matter how hard you work, no matter what tests you took, no matter what they told you would happen if you paid tens of thousands of dollars for school, you are entitled to nothing! Like everyone else who isn't lucky enough to have it all handed to him, you'll have to continue to claw and scratch and struggle to survive and to create wealth and to get the things you want. When did I say you shouldn't try to change the hand you're dealt? Absolutely you should! If you don't like the status quo, turn it over! How do you confuse "No one owes you anything" with "you should not try to change anything"?