Hopes and Expectations - Gratitude and Entitlement
A few years ago, comedian Lewis Black had a routine about our expectations. The upshot was that we should start lowering our expectations.
We should lower our expectations of our elected representatives with Congress hitting a new low of 9% approval rating. Rather than serve the public, many politicians want to serve their party even if it hurts the country as a whole.
We have been forced to lower our expectations of organized religion with years of revelations about the corruption of the Catholic Church and the violent misunderstanding of Islam by millions of its believers.
We have been forced to lower our expectations about our banking sector after the unbridled greed of Wall Street traders led to the near collapse of our economy in 2008.
We have been disappointed in our public education system, losing our confidence that students will get an excellent education that will prepare them to succeed in the future. It seems that families that can afford it are putting their children in private or parochial schools rather than having them suffer through years of inadequate education.
We have had expectations of our mainstream media. We expected them to be objective, thorough and responsible. Instead we find subjective, sensationalist and superficial reporting. We didn’t expect stories to drag on daily for weeks and months with the very coverage inciting the news segment. Coverage of the four month-long protest riots in St. Louis is just the latest example. It’s as though the press is saying “giving us more dirt for our report. The more outlandish the better, the longer the better.”
And it’s gotten down to the individual level. We have been disappointed by our colleagues, employers, friends, acquaintances and family members. Promises are broken and truth gets lost in the shuffle. It seems that we no longer know what to expect or whom to trust.
A recent poll taken by the media, asked Americans if they still believe in the American dream. Half of those surveyed said “no.” We’ve lowered our expectations.
I have realized that expectations lead to disappointment because we are not all the same. We do not share the same values and beliefs or cultural identification. Our goals and objectives are different as are our talents, abilities and ethics. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” ( creating an expectation and possible disappointment) should be changed to “do unto others in the hope that they will do that unto you, but without expectation of that happening,” saving you a lot of unnecessary, but predicable, disappointment.
While we are told of the advantage of diversity we are painfully aware of its many downsides. Remember the tower of Babble. It was not created to make humans more productive. It was not a reward.
President Obama campaigned on the prospect of hope. He said that we can hope for a better future that includes greater prosperity for a larger share of the population. The optimism he espoused has drowned in a sea of partisanship, ego and limited intellect.
I have decided to cultivate hope and I believe that expectations are to entitlement as hope is to gratitude.
I hope for the best in everything I do but have no expectations.
Having had a very successful career as an analyst, I send suggestions to our representatives in the hopes that they will read them and use them to help the affected population. But I don’t expect them to even read them. I would be grateful if they did, but I don’t feel that I am entitled to their attention.
I have suggested a way to avoid the massive foreclosures that occurred in 2008 and continued for years. I could not get response from any of our representatives even though my idea would have saved thousands of people their homes and would have prevented or, at least, eased the collapse in housing values. I now believe that they knew my idea but wanted to give billions to homeowners. ( I wrote to the CEO of the largest lender with my idea. He had the executive in charge of the bank’s mortgage program respond, telling me that that option has been available from the start, but it was never mentioned or publicized. That was unexpected.)
I have recently suggested a way to save the Affordable Care Act by eliminating the need for it to be mandatory, have penalties for non-compliance or provide tax credits to subsidize the insurance companies by allowing them to charge higher rates knowing that the customer will get a tax rebate. My idea is so obvious, you would think that the many great minds that engineered this important legislation would have also come up with it. Yet, I still hope that a decision maker will read my plan and make good use of it. But I don’t expect it. Just because I am a constituent and supporter, a taxpayer and a neighbor, I don’t feel myself entitled to their response, but I’d sure appreciate it.
I write a column and a blog that is also available on Facebook. I write in the hope of helping people by stimulating thought and conversation about issues that I think are important. I hope that people will read and appreciate my ideas. But I don’t expect it. I would hope to get feedback from my readers and am grateful when I do. I don’t think that I am entitled to thoughtful response from my audience.
I hope that this very column will be read and be helpful to a number of people. It would be nice to receive response to it. If I do, I will feel very grateful.
A few years ago, comedian Lewis Black had a routine about our expectations. The upshot was that we should start lowering our expectations.
We should lower our expectations of our elected representatives with Congress hitting a new low of 9% approval rating. Rather than serve the public, many politicians want to serve their party even if it hurts the country as a whole.
We have been forced to lower our expectations of organized religion with years of revelations about the corruption of the Catholic Church and the violent misunderstanding of Islam by millions of its believers.
We have been forced to lower our expectations about our banking sector after the unbridled greed of Wall Street traders led to the near collapse of our economy in 2008.
We have been disappointed in our public education system, losing our confidence that students will get an excellent education that will prepare them to succeed in the future. It seems that families that can afford it are putting their children in private or parochial schools rather than having them suffer through years of inadequate education.
We have had expectations of our mainstream media. We expected them to be objective, thorough and responsible. Instead we find subjective, sensationalist and superficial reporting. We didn’t expect stories to drag on daily for weeks and months with the very coverage inciting the news segment. Coverage of the four month-long protest riots in St. Louis is just the latest example. It’s as though the press is saying “giving us more dirt for our report. The more outlandish the better, the longer the better.”
And it’s gotten down to the individual level. We have been disappointed by our colleagues, employers, friends, acquaintances and family members. Promises are broken and truth gets lost in the shuffle. It seems that we no longer know what to expect or whom to trust.
A recent poll taken by the media, asked Americans if they still believe in the American dream. Half of those surveyed said “no.” We’ve lowered our expectations.
I have realized that expectations lead to disappointment because we are not all the same. We do not share the same values and beliefs or cultural identification. Our goals and objectives are different as are our talents, abilities and ethics. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” ( creating an expectation and possible disappointment) should be changed to “do unto others in the hope that they will do that unto you, but without expectation of that happening,” saving you a lot of unnecessary, but predicable, disappointment.
While we are told of the advantage of diversity we are painfully aware of its many downsides. Remember the tower of Babble. It was not created to make humans more productive. It was not a reward.
President Obama campaigned on the prospect of hope. He said that we can hope for a better future that includes greater prosperity for a larger share of the population. The optimism he espoused has drowned in a sea of partisanship, ego and limited intellect.
I have decided to cultivate hope and I believe that expectations are to entitlement as hope is to gratitude.
I hope for the best in everything I do but have no expectations.
Having had a very successful career as an analyst, I send suggestions to our representatives in the hopes that they will read them and use them to help the affected population. But I don’t expect them to even read them. I would be grateful if they did, but I don’t feel that I am entitled to their attention.
I have suggested a way to avoid the massive foreclosures that occurred in 2008 and continued for years. I could not get response from any of our representatives even though my idea would have saved thousands of people their homes and would have prevented or, at least, eased the collapse in housing values. I now believe that they knew my idea but wanted to give billions to homeowners. ( I wrote to the CEO of the largest lender with my idea. He had the executive in charge of the bank’s mortgage program respond, telling me that that option has been available from the start, but it was never mentioned or publicized. That was unexpected.)
I have recently suggested a way to save the Affordable Care Act by eliminating the need for it to be mandatory, have penalties for non-compliance or provide tax credits to subsidize the insurance companies by allowing them to charge higher rates knowing that the customer will get a tax rebate. My idea is so obvious, you would think that the many great minds that engineered this important legislation would have also come up with it. Yet, I still hope that a decision maker will read my plan and make good use of it. But I don’t expect it. Just because I am a constituent and supporter, a taxpayer and a neighbor, I don’t feel myself entitled to their response, but I’d sure appreciate it.
I write a column and a blog that is also available on Facebook. I write in the hope of helping people by stimulating thought and conversation about issues that I think are important. I hope that people will read and appreciate my ideas. But I don’t expect it. I would hope to get feedback from my readers and am grateful when I do. I don’t think that I am entitled to thoughtful response from my audience.
I hope that this very column will be read and be helpful to a number of people. It would be nice to receive response to it. If I do, I will feel very grateful.
