The current Culture of Entitlement is not the one we inherited

Properly understood , our original cultural origins in entitlement are very sound .   So with all this haste to restart liberalism in the west - lets not demolish the building but rebuild it .  As so often happens in the history of the West some smart arse reactionary to the faith thinks they know better than our forebears and takes only the theory and practice bits that suit them. The getting bit - not so much , the giving bit .

The current Culture of  Entitlement is not the one we inherited . Its a quickfix and half baked version that doesn't work . One of the bits that we have failed to include is the concept of ownership( also rightly understood).

in 2010 ISCAST I published an article which explored the history of the entitlement culture of early believers . I did this because many of the traditions of land management adopted there are still effective and powerful in addressing  the challenges of resource expolitation and diseconomy .  Up until recently we believed in them and trained people to practice them - but no longer ! Unlike us the early Hebrews maintained an effective, balanced  and positive view of  the rights and responsibilities of land ownership in particular . One of my contentions in that article was that present Western Culture  was far too much  influenced by a weakening of our understanding and commitment  to ownership.   For many years before I wrote this direct challenge to conventional wisdom on aid ,development and sustainability drivers, I  was concerned that many well intentioned operatives , were being sucked into some aspects of western cultural practice  that didn't actually work . This would be fine if we didn't know better because influencing resource use for the better is not easy work .   Even in the culture of one of the most effective conservation planning and environemnet organisations in the world ,the full culture of sound rights and responsibilities( including in territory allocation  and respect) was being eroded . Politicians and reactionaries started to like talking about our profession . This was initially welcome , until you realise they only half get it . I have seen now 3 decades of "half baked "and erosion of the very foundations of the  tension  required to hold incentive and regulation in conservation together.The very adoption of incomplete methodologies( of incentive,self management  and regulation and cooercion )  at a high political level , and their failure in recent years , MUST make for powerful reflection by ALL the major parties who are only into half baked on this .
The counter culture of conservation requires great competence - something our polys have failed to provide as they play football with my profession.  This means in Australia today we are promoting tokens and irresponsible entitlement theories that cannot sustain themselves (Can't have everyone sitting at the end of the drip feed )  Not all about getting, and "what I want "   The time has indeed come to tear down the eroded edifice of something great to rebuild it without the woosy weak mortar of Marxist  heresies .
The challenge to reduce homelessness was a powerful stimulus to revive these really important related issues of entitlements and alloting space to young people .
You heard it first from Emperor's Academy11 May 2012

Your feedback would be apprecaited While wikipedia is good at the moment on this subject , you never know who might revise it .


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_entitlement