I was just browsing around in another thread when a sig line caught my eye. it read:
I am intentionally not linking to it or mentioning the poster’s name because I have no idea whether he/she seriously feels this way, or if it is a joke (I hope the latter).
It doesn’t matter what the poster’s intention was, but the quote is beautiful. It sums up rather efficiently and perfectly what is so wrong with my country (USA). Many people here really feel this way (again-- I do not want to single out the person who wrote this).
Get this, my fellow countrymen-- no one promised you anything. You deserve nothing. When you get a bigger, fuller glass that means someone else is doing without.
Where did this whole “me-me-me-me-me-ME! ME! ME!; I got mine so fuck you all; pull yourself up by your bootstraps (even if you have none); I’m 'Merkin-- outta my way; ‘say it in English, rag-head’; I’m American-- I deserve it; I’ll sue you, bastard!; let the rest of the world rot, for all I care” attitude come from? Is this rugged individualism?
I think many Americans embrace this sort of selfish philosophy and it has tangible effects on the rest of the world. I think many people from outside the U.S. feel that most Americans have this philosophy, too. I’d even speculate that many Americans would admit sharing these views, and yet would see nothing wrong with it.
Just for fun-- can you invent a version of the “glass half full/empty” saying that YOU think applies to Americans? How about one that, in a perfect world, would apply to Americans? My vote for this would be:
"The glass isn’t a glass at all but merley my cupped hands which can barely hold enough water to sate my thirst. I am indeed fortunate to have any hands or water at all, so I am content. Do you have enough water? Let me get you some."
Maybe the sig line was not meant to imply rampent greed, but rather a desire to improve ones lot. I agree that many aspects of the American culture are based on consumerism above and beyond actual need, but I also feel that, when tempered with care and compassion for others, there is no shame in trying to make your life (and friends and families lives) better.
Given that the quote is from well-known humorist Terry Pratchett, I wouldn’t take it too seriously. But there’s some to it. Folks who act entitled are a lot more likely to get what they want than those who meekly ask. You have decide for yourself if that’s how you want to live.
“Ah say, ah say, ah say it was a joke, son!” Get a grip. :rolleyes:
Bonus points to burundi, who recognized the source of the quote, reproduced below in full.
There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What’s up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don’t think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
I was pretty sure it was meant as a joke. I was going to Google it, but just assumed it was original. I am glad to learn the source.
I might not have communicated myself as well as I could have in the OP. I was trying to relate my excitement at having discovered a prhase that, to me, so perfectly summarizes many Americans’ feelings of entitlement. Whether the phrase was initially meant as a joke or not, and who authored it are both unimportant for this discussion.
This is IMHO and I’m just sharing mine of a funny/scary phrase that I just learned today. When I read it I just thought “Wow-- I know a lot of people that seriously feel exactly that way.”
For a dissenting opinion, read the article “A question of justice?” in the Economist magazine, circa 11 March 2004. It’s premium content now at economist.com, but I got a printout while the article was hot off the press. Any typographical errors due to transcription from the printout can be blamed on me.
How about this for an applicable saying: “It’s just a metaphor. Lighten up.”
Probably from the same place as the desire to demonstrate one’s own moral superiority by claiming that everyone around you is immoral.
Americans are just people, no different than any others. People everywhere strive to improve their lot. It’s not a bad thing unless they do so by pushing someone else down. But this is rarely the case.
It wasn’t originally intended that way, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Anything that chaps the ass of the “America bad because it consumes so much” crowd is alright by me. Buncha Marxist whiners, the lot of them. Its raining soup out there, but these buggers are too lazy to pick up a bucket. No, they want the USA to give them the contents of the USA’s bucket. Screw that!
Thank you, amore ac studio, for that item from the Economist. It sums things up concisely. The world IS NOT a zero sum game, and it never will be.
It depends on how you look at it. If your glass is full, and you intend on drinking it, and while doing so you pause half way through, your glass is now half empty because the intention was to consume it.
Now if you’re filling your glass, and half way through you pause, the glass is half full because the intention is to fill it.
What I said has nothing to do with what you all are talking about though.
I don’t think the phrase or the sentiment behind it, whether applied to Americans or not, is “Me, me, me’ism” or wanting something given to them.
I see it as, not entitlement, but more in the vein of busting your ass to get the biggest and the best. So the bigger glass that is completely full is not a handout scooped from the mouths of starving poor, but a reward for which you worked.
If you’re looking for something to blame, I’d suggest the '80s, otherwise known as “The Me Decade.” Ronald Reagan sold people the voodoo economics myth, that it’s possible to lower taxes and increase spending without having to pay any sort of a price. You can’t, of course, but people got addicted to getting more stuff without paying for it, and now nobody wants to lift their snout from the trough long enough to ask, “Who’s paying for all this?”
Or, as the '80s movie Wall Street put it, “Greed is good.” It isn’t, but no one wants to hear it.