Privilege Versus Entitlement

A 2009 CBS News segment tell us that:

"[Millennials] were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating."
"And their priorities are simple: they come first."  
"Faced with new employees who want to roll into work with their iPods and flip flops around noon, but still be CEO by Friday, companies are realizing that the era of the buttoned down exec happy to have a job is as dead as the three-Martini lunch."
"Childhoods filled with trophies and adulation didn't prepare them for the cold realities of work."
The rest of the article is at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-3475200.html.  There's a lot more of the same kind of rhetoric.

And since then, here's a quick history:  http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/time_magazines_millennials_cover_a_history_of_millennials_in_the_media/

The conclusion?  Millennials get a lot of criticism, and a pile of assumptions.  Because many Millennials have more opportunities than previous generations, I think that some people might confuse privilege with entitlement.

privilege (n)

1) restricted right or benefit: an advantage, right, or benefit that is not available to everyone

2) rights and advantages enjoyed by elite: the rights and advantages enjoyed by a relatively small group of people, usually as a result of wealth or social status

3) special honor: a special treat or honor

en·ti·tle·ment (n)
1) the condition of having a right to have, do, or get something
2) the feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges)
3) a type of financial help provided by the government for members of a particular group

A look at the second definition of privilege is what I would most like to point out.  I am wildly privileged.  My point is here, that it's not because of money, money only plays a small part in what privilege means.

• I am cisgender (meaning "the same", vs. transgender).  I will never have to deal with the prejudice of those unwilling to accept my identity.
• I am heterosexual.  I have married the person of my dreams without anyone holding up a sign telling me that I'm going to hell.
• I am healthy.  I do not have any mental or physical ailment or disability that prevents me from pursuing my dreams or causes others to make wrongful assumptions about my capabilities.
• I'm white.  
• I grew up in a stable, middle-class household with parents who love me.
• I have never have been the victim of (or perpetrator of) any real crime.
• I have never been the victim of traumatic events, such as a natural disaster.

So, when I went to college, I wasn't surprised I got in.  I have a lot of advantages because of the opportunities granted to me by privilege.  This is not entitlement.  I didn't believe that I deserved to go to college because of them.  I believed that I had a responsibility to make the most out of them.  I'm lucky enough to have a full-time job, which I wouldn't if I hadn't worked hard and tried to make the most out of each chance.  I'm not saying that my advantage should exist, but until the day that people are free of prejudice, some people will always have advantage over others.

What I feel might be confused for entitlement is when a Millennial graduates, realizing how many opportunities and advantages they have been given, perhaps with a better sense of what privilege is than in previous generations... and fails to find work.  The economy has taken a well-publicized nosedive.  Wages shrink, the cost of living goes up, and unemployment is higher.  Expectations for a minimum education has risen while the cost of said education has exponentially ballooned.  I could go on, but anyone who has been unemployed in the last 5 years likely knows exactly what I'm talking about.

How I've interpreted the communication from my peers, from internet blogs to personal conversations, is that we feel an responsibility, an obligation to make the most out of our advantages, and after being told for years that we could do anything we set our mind to, we are bewildered when our expectations fail to materialize.  I thought we were supposed to give back to society?  Does this mean we didn't set our mind to it?  How else are we supposed to make sense of our privilege, unless we are able to realize our potential?

I would LOVE to do a photo op, where I took pictures of people holding up signs that broke up our assumptions about what privilege is and who has it.  As the saying goes, everyone's normal till you get to know them.

I've been middle class all my life and I'm still working on how I see people with more (and less) than I have.  Instead of heaping hate on the 10%, or even the 1%, why don't we refrain from making assumptions about what privileges they may or may not have had?  If they're an asshole, it might be worth finding out why.  We are all but human, after all.

In the vein of the article "I'm a Millennial. Please Stop Being a Douche to Me", http://iambeggingmymothernottoreadthisblog.com/2013/09/18/im-a-millenial-please-stop-being-a-douche-to-me/, I'd like to ask people to reconsider how they frame entitlement & privilege, and take a moment and realize what privileges we may (or may not) have been granted.

Why I Think This Article is Wrong (and you should too)

The article in question:
http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2013/07/a-new-education-for-a-new-theatre/
Further reading at:
http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2013/06/on-saying-it-to-their-faces/

First, I'd like to point out that this article is very well-intentioned, and I think it makes some good points, but then takes them too far.  You might also call me a cynic.

Walters, in http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2013/06/business-model-the-next-frontier/, points out that the current business model of theatre is fairly unsustainable.  I agree.  He seems to think that through "innovation", Facebook, Foursquare, etc, we can start something new.  He proposes locking a number of people in a room and writing about what they say.  I'm skeptical.  I'll be getting back to this.

There's business in making actors.  Performing arts schools, theatre education classes, and high-priced theatre degrees all are making money off of people's belief that one day they can be an actor/director/theatre professional.  So it is no surprise that upon graduation, with thousands and thousands of dollars of student debt, many are surprised to find that their dream isn't quite "as seen on TV"?  Like PhDs, trained actors are flooding the market.

I agree with Walters, that actors should feel empowered to make their own art.  However, unlike writing or painting, acting is collaborative, and once the work has been produced, it is over.  The most an actor can do by themselves is a one-person show, as long as they can find a space and an audience.  Training students to start their own theatre companies will result in a lot of start-up theatre companies, which is not necessarily the best thing for any community.

The way I see it:  X number of people in a community would want to see a show.  Companies, foundations, and governments have X amount of money to donate to theatre companies.  If you double the number of theatre companies in a town, the number of audience members and available money does NOT double as well.  Everyone gets less.  Established companies close, and new companies falter to get off the ground.  No one is able to making a living at it, and so what we find is a lot of community theatres fighting each other for a limited audience.

I don't see that as a good thing.

We cannot make more audiences by wishing.  We cannot make our audiences richer by crossing our fingers.  If we want more audiences, we need to have theatres that have the funds for marketing and the will to engage the community.  These theatres need to let recent graduates in to play with them, instead of forcing them out into the world.  Give them space.  Let them come and learn.  Making the theatre community start by reaching out into its own community.  Use collaboration and joint marketing efforts to send troupes of established theatres out into small communities.

As I said before, I believe Walter has some good ideas about making the theatre education process much more realistic.  However, we also need to be cautious that we don't flood the market with theatre companies instead of actors, because then we are back at square one where no one is making a living at theatre and because of creating such a large supply, we have devalued the performance itself.