Why can't I feel entitled, too?
Somebody took away my God-given right,
I guess God musta gave it to you...
We're taught now that we can be anything. And personally, I think that's infinitely cruel, because we can not. Not really, not anything. And I wonder where all this went wrong. Children being taught they could grow up to be anything, that their circumstances now didn't have to dictate their circumstances in the future. Just 'cause daddy is a bus driver don't mean you have to be. It did, in the old days, and I'm sure it's more true now than we'd like to think. Gradually, this notion spread to encompass more than just a financial or social standing. It also extended to women, to members of minority groups, and so on. Personally, I think the same applies to them. You can't be anything under the sun, though not because you're a woman or black or gay or whatever else. No. I believe you're playing the same field of possibility, and that your gender, race, or sexual orientation shouldn't come into it.
But the playing field itself is flawed.
Ironically, we assume that equal opportunity should mean equal opportunity to succeed, when in fact, it only means you've got about the same chances to fail as everyone else. And that's fine, that's how it should be, even if it's not nice or clean. I don't really think life was meant to be either nice or clean. But a lot of people assume that they'll automatically succeed at something just because they want to. Unfortunately, that's not how life works.
Success requires skill, natural talent, and of course, copious amounts of hard work. Simply wanting something has never been enough, and personally I don't understand why we shouldn't say that, in the first place. We're meant to encourage everyone to be what they want to be, and sure, I'm all for that. For a while. But if it won't and won't work... then maybe you shouldn't be walking down this path in life?
It's simply not for you.
We live in an age where we're all encouraged to believe that all the toys in the playground are ours for the taking, and I don't think that's a very good thing to believe. It's a pleasant thought, at first, but also a harmful one. Thinking you can do anything implies the question - well, why aren't you? People nowadays are under a lot more pressure, or rather, a different type of societal pressure, than people before. And why? Because they're told they could do anything, that they could be anything.
We all want our kids to do well at violin class, or soccer practice, yet not all kids are naturally good at violin or soccer. While this truth may be difficult to accept for some parents, and unpleasant, or even neutral for others, all parents come to accept it, in the end. So why can't we accept the same later on in life?
I was talking to someone earlier about what constitutes good writing, and bad writing, and whether or not I could spot someone who's naturally good at the craft. The answer to me was obvious.
Of course I can. Some have an inner knack, either for crafting sentences, or for chasing unusual ideas. Sometimes, when you're lucky, it's both. But you can always tell when you're reading the work of someone who ain't cut out for it. And that's not to say the writing itself is not good. It can be very clean, very correct. It just hasn't got spark.
Collectively, we seem to be under this impression that you can just achieve spark, if you want it bad enough, but you can't. Or rather, I've heard a lot of people say that sure, there are those who have natural talent for something, but won't work at it. Then, there are those who'll work at it, despite their lack of natural talent, and in the end become better than the one who's naturally talented. Sure. But this theory only works if we assume the naturally talented one doesn't work as hard. If they do, there's no way in Hell the one who's not naturally talented will beat them, or even come close.
(Obviously, I'm not overlooking the importance of hard work, with or without talent. Yes, people without spark can achieve great results if they work at something really hard. Unfortunately, we equate "work hard" with "it should come naturally", and often don't work at it very much, at all.)
Whence this assumption that only if you work hard enough, you can overcome anything? Probably from the same place we got the notion that we should all be good at the same things. For instance, I like ball games, but I'm not naturally good at them. That doesn't mean I'll watch a championship and hate the players for having something I don't. For years, when I was younger, I wanted to learn to play the guitar, as I loved its sound. I took lessons, I practiced on my own. But something just didn't click. It wasn't something I was good at, and sure, I could've kept at it, and maybe someday I'll pick it up again... as a hobby. I won't look at people like Zakk Wylde and ask why can he, and I can't?
Life doesn't work that way.
I've noticed a lot of people don't like this line of thinking, largely because it invites thoughts like - well, am I naturally good at X? And what if I'm not?. Sadly, merely avoiding the question does not erase it. Seems to me that the sooner you face some hard truths about what you suck at is actually beneficial. Gives you more room to discover what you're naturally good at.
"Kid, you just ain't got it" - We can accept this as common parlance in Hollywood, so why not in real life?
Lyrics in the beginning are from Jack White's 'Entitlement'
