Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Entitlement Mentality

Something needs to be done about the entitlement mentality that is so prevalent among Americans today. I am tired of reading and hearing about people’s “right” to [insert whichever contrived entitlement is in vogue today]. People need to start taking responsibility for their actions and refrain from involving the State in their petty quarrels.

Here is an example of what I mean.

The Washington Post recently ran an article about a Pro-life drugstore that will soon open in Chantilly, VA. As a Pro-life drugstore, DMC Pharmacy will stock neither contraceptives nor abortifacients. The “Pro-choice as long as you agree with me” crowd has immediately begun to raise a stink for no reason other than that such a store “deprives women of their ‘right’ to contraception”. Other than the obviously erroneous Griswold v. Connecticut decision, by what twisted reasoning does a woman have a “right” to contraception?





Anyone?





This isn’t rhetorical…





That’s what I thought.

To make matters worse, these selfish fools have been joined by other morons who want the State to pass legislation which would force these pharmacists to dispense these abominable products. Unfortunately, this spectacle of stupidity is not an isolated incident.

A case has recently appeared before the Supreme Court of California regarding a fertility clinic. A lesbian has decided to sue the fertility doctors who refused to inseminate her. So, in addition to the "right" to contraception, we now have a "right" to artificial insemination. This absurd sense of entitlement displayed by these idiots makes me want to vomit with rage!

The entitlement mentality has resulted in an abuse of the word “right”. Everything has become a “right”: marriage, abortion, contraception, conscience, etc.

That’s right, I said conscience.

People do not have a right to act according to their conscience. Rather, they have a duty to act according to their conscience. This means that if their conscience is wrong, then they can be justly penalized. For example, your conscience tells you that it is morally obligatory to euthanize children with painful, debilitating, terminal diseases. You have a duty to act accordingly. However, your conscience is wrong. Resultantly, you can be justly charged, convicted, and sentenced for acting in compliance with your conscience.

But contraception is legal!



What’s your point?

The mere legality of something is not indicative of its morality. Consequently, I am under no obligation to engage or assist in immoral action simply because the action happens to have been approved by the legislature.

Now, I’ve spent a good deal of time talking about rights that don’t exist. What about rights that do exist? Without naming all of them, let’s just talk about one: Property.

The right to property is especially relevant given the events described above. Not only does the right to property include the right to own property, it also includes the right to do as you please with that property. Granted, there are limitations. However, these limitations are with respect to moral obligations and the common good. None of the above incidents involve the limitations on the right to property.

Now, the reason why the right to property applies in the above incidents is simple: the people who are “infringing upon the ‘rights’” of the morons were guilty of nothing more than exercising property rights. Their refusal to treat or dispense drugs to the “aggrieved” parties was neither violative of any moral obligation nor destructive to the common good.

The entitlement mentality is the root cause of the majority of the societal problems in this country. It must be remedied before these problems can be addressed.


- Dominus -

3 comments:

Scarcely Human said...

As long as you don't infringe upon my right to piss in their coffee, I'm happy.

I think your blog should be called "Y'know what really grinds my gears?"

babysinblack said...

So as a woman, I don't have a "right" to decide whether or not to have a child?

Dominus said...

babysinblack:
Why would you have this "right"?