Recently I had the pleasure of finally reading Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead graphic novel. Shortly after I had the displeasure of encountering something entirely too common nowadays: a person with a strong sense of entitlement. Neither of these things should be especially remarkable, but each got me thinking.
First, a little information about the two things.
The Walking Dead graphic novel is the source material that the popular TV show of the same name is loosely based on. I use the term loosely because while major events and characters mirror the source material, some minor tweaks keep the show from being an exact adaptation . A popular example of this deviation is the character Daryl Dixon, who doesn't exist at all the graphic novel, but is an integral character on the show. There are other differences throughout each major story arc, most notably the prison arc in which most of the impactful events happen. No spoilers, but let's just say the TV characters get off pretty easy in comparison.
If you live in the U.S., unless you've been living under a rock or perhaps a different country where the culture is different, you can probably identify the typical entitled person. It's the person who shows up at your local business with a nasty attitude by default, but expects kindness and the best service; it's the person who demands everything, but wants to give nothing; it's the person who seems biologically incapable of being denied, and will do everything short of fight you to get their way. They basically are the worst kinds of people who aren't criminals. They're also utterly oblivious to what they are and unable to understand that their way of being is awful.
The tie-in between these seemingly unrelated things is this: entitlement is a plague. It's kind of like whatever causes the dead to walk in the graphic novel.
Think about it: entitled people have an insatiable appetite. Theirs is the hunger for validation, appeasement, gratification, attention, and to have their every desire fulfilled. Whatever drives this need to consume seems inexhaustible. This isn't unlike the constant need to consume human flesh exhibited by the undead walkers in the Kirkman's graphic novel. Both creatures seem oblivious to the damage their own existence causes others, and are only concerned with their need.
What I thought was most remarkable was the inverse relationship of these entities. In the graphic novel, where civilization as we know it has all but ended, there are many undead and virtually no entitled people. In our society, with its consumerist culture, excess, and convenience there are many entitled people and, presumably, no undead. This is because the world of the Walking Dead is one of survival, where it's necessary to fight to live everyday, and to work hard for everything worth having. Belonging to a group or community means that you have something to offer in the way of skills, knowledge, or physical ability. No one gets a free ride or more than their fare share. And the only people oblivious of these truths are the dead, the psychopaths and sociopaths, or those who've succumbed to insanity or fear.
I enjoy living in a world of relative safety, abundance, wealth and convenience, rather than scarcity and danger. But it frustrates knowing that some believe these or anything are entitlements just because. And while I'm not keen on seeing the walking dead in reality, I certainly would like to see what a world without entitlement looks like.
