Most of us have seen the following scene at least once. Supermarket, 3 pm, any given weekday, mom getting groceries with little ones in tow. Time to go through the checkout and one of the little ones sees a bag of Skittles that has been strategically placed at eye level by the supermarketeers.
" I want, I want!", comes the shrill cry. Mom, who is probably at the end of her rope, gives in. Toddler has just won his first battle and has been initiated into the E&E club. The men in suits at the ad agencies in NYC and Toronto know this and continue to lambast our eyes and ears with the latest and greatest thing that we all 'must have'.
The worst culprits of the E&E club are teenagers. I should know, I live with 3 of them. They think that the world revolves around them and that they should get whatever they want whenever they want and by any means necessary. Even if this includes emotional blackmail or manipulation. When parental divorce is thrown into the mix, it becomes even worse. Guilt becomes the commodity.
Getting a summer job? Heck no! Not the E&E crowd. That might involve actually WORKING!
The E&E crowd that the world has become familiar with is the Quebec protesters. For those who are unaware, there have been protests in the streets of Montreal for the past three months because the government wants to raise the university tuition in Quebec. As it stands right now, Quebecers have the lowest tuition in Canada. They pay the same amount of tuition now as Albertans paid in 1990, including inflation. But they don't want to pay the increase that has been proposed to them. So off they go to the streets and protest, break windows and cause major havoc because they have been brought up to expect to get things for nothing in return. My message to them? GROW UP!
Seriously, it gets worse.
There is a teacher in Edmonton who was suspended by the local school board for giving out zero's in his classroom. HELLO??? If a student doesn't do his work, why should he get anything? He deserves a BIG FAT ZERO. When I was in school, we got marks docked for improper grammar and spelling mistakes! Not any more. Kids are not allowed to fail in the school system. Teachers can't give them zeros! These kids, who have been coddled and told that they are special, and haven't learned that doing good in school is an expectation and not a cause for celebration, are the ones that will be looking after me when I am old. SHUDDER! One only learns from failure, not by being coddled by the world.
So my message to the E&E's out there? SUCK IT UP AND GET REAL. The world is an unfair place and is not the wonderful world of Disney or Barney or whatever shite you were influenced by when you were young. When you screw up, there are consequences for your actions. You are no better than anyone else, so stop thinking that you are 'all that'. You aren't.
The world revolves around the sun, not around you.
