It's the double-edge sword of being part of an affluent society. On the one hand, food, clean water, shelter, etc. is accessible to the vast majority of the population. On the other, food, clean water, shelter, etc. is accessible to the vast majority of the population so, a couple of generations on, everyone is taking that shit for granted.

Once you make something a right instead of a priveledge, it becomes devalued by those that grow up with it and, in a suitably affluent society, that ends up being extended to success.

This is going to make me sound like a 50 year old man, but...

Our grandparents generation, and all those that came before them, expected to fight in a war or at least struggle to survive when they reached a certain age. They didn't expect to survive long enough to have kids, and if they did, they didn't expect to be able to provide for them. Disease, war and poverty meant that you had to struggle and work to survive every day.

Thanks to technology and exploitation of resources, we're now two generations into a culture (in the west, anyway) where people assume they will live long enough to produce offspring, and that those offspring will recieve a good standard of education and go on to produce their own healthy, educated offspring...anything else is unimaginable.

So, in conclusion, people no longer expect to have to work at things, or to be held responsible if things don't go their way. Success is an assumption, not a vague possibility at the limits of feasibility.

As I say, it's a double-edged sword. I wouldn't choose to live in a time where my country didn't have the resources to take care of me no matter how long I remained out of work or where my education is free, but it has its prices, and that's what you're looking at with these retards on the phone, Kermit.

I realize the concept you are talking about Thommy, but it still annoys me. Sometimes I think I am one of the few remaining people in the world who will freely admit when they are wrong or made a mistake. So I get very upset when I get blamed or made a scapegoat for something I didn't do.

Oh yeah, I agree with you, just giving you my theory behind it. Obviously, knowing something about history and being aware of this stuation immediatley makes you a bit more likely to not be an ungrateful little bitch. It's amazing how many people just have no idea about this sort of thing though and just think that having success, happiness and health is just something that's par for the course for human beings.