Saturday, May 02, 2009

A Generation of Spoiled Idiots



This is one of the wisest, most enlightening standup (well, except that Louis C. K. is sitting down) routines I've seen. Also it's really funny.

The phenomenon he is describing here is undeniably real. It overtakes all of us, at least upon occasion.

I see two elements involved. One of them was expressed by Ortega y Gasset in The Revolt of the Masses:
The world is a civilised one, its inhabitant is not: he does not see the civilisation of the world around him, but he uses it as if it were a natural force. The new man wants his motor-car, and enjoys it, but he believes that it is the spontaneous fruit of an Edenic tree. In the depths of his soul he is unaware of the artificial, almost incredible, character of civilization....
Those wonderful technological implements are human achievements. Real people actually how to make these things. Their achievements are only possible because certain economic and moral and legal institutions are in place that enable us to reward their efforts and prevent us from exploiting or molesting them. Most of us have no clue as to what these institutions or even that these people exist.

The other element I see here is what is sometimes called "the entitlement mentality," which says that whatever is desirable is therefore a right (at least if I am the one who wants it).

Obviously, both these attitudes are moral diseases. What causes them? Democracy? The market economy? Prosperity?

5 comments:

Max Kuenkel said...

I believe that the last three things you mentioned (democracy, market economy, properity) are the fruits of a long and unlikely-to-succeed process of civilization; sort of like watching a juggler in the circus: incredible, and highly unlikely that anybody could achieve such a thing. But mainly I see civilization as the end result of a long process.

"Entitlement mentality" on the other end of that scale is everywhere the point of departure, the barbarism of the jungle: trying and expecting to steal from others their time, their work, their accomplishments, their money, their time. Instead of one animal outright stealing another animal's food, certain humans have found ways to steal goods and services from the taxpayers and other productive people who earned it. Like animals, these people lack all curiosity at all about the bigger picture; their inner dialog is more like: "me here, eat now, get food, get stuff for me & mine, avoid risk if possible, avoid work if possible, adopt whatever beliefs and mouth whatever phrases are most helpful for success in these endeavors, such as the highly successful belief systems called "victim mentality" and "entitlement mentality". And they go out and do it, as sure as any animal predator goes out and steals another animal's food, work, or life.

Lester Hunt said...

Max,

It could be that these institutions bring about their own destruction. One beautiful thing about competitive prices in a market economy is that they are a sort of social order that is spontaneous and self-maintaining. No one person needs to know what the price of a given good ought to be. But the market itself is not self-maintaining at all. It rests on a whole array of institutions and legal practices, which will only continue to exist if there are enough people who understand them and want them to survive. If capitalist prosperity gives rise to a state of mind that does not understand or does not care, then ....

Scott Lahti said...

Awesome. I, too, blogged on Louis CK's priceless rant, a real Internet phenom, over at Alexandria:

"My kind of comedy goes far deeper than politics, spares absolutely no one, least of all me, and manages to be both savagely biting and positive in outlook at the same time: one of our best comedians helps a few crybabies and pantswetters live a little longer to the extent they learn when to shut the hell up and thank Mind."

Ortega is Da Man 2, with his phenomenological take, as here, on the "spoiled child" syndrome, and so much else. Pity he's been overtaken by so many more modish philosophers. He belongs within the remarkable galaxy of pre-war cultural conservatives anthologized in Robert Crunden's The Superfluous Men, e.g., Mencken, Nock, Santayana, the Southern Agrarians, &c.

Lester Hunt said...

I had not heard of that book, but now that I have, I've ordered it from the public library. It sounds like my kind of book.

Craig D said...

The other element I see here is what is sometimes called "the entitlement mentality," which says that whatever is desirable is therefore a right (at least if I am the one who wants it).Dude! The recent same-sex marriage pop-storm comes to mind...