Some years ago I wrote here that the great malady of contemporary American society is that we are becoming a nation of victims living on entitlements. More recently I have spoken of the terrible impact upon education quality by those who have been advanced not by academic achievement but by political entitlement. It is now at least time to define "entitlement" as I have been using it. Political entitlement is when someone has been given something entirely or largely because of a title, rather than by merit or because of need.

I do not mean here legal entitlement, the basis upon which government social services are given. The law itself entitles certain people on the basis of stipulated need to particular provisions to meet these needs. Legal entitlement is simply being qualified according to the law. No argument with this.

What I have in mind can be illustrated by the customs of some European royalty. Here is a kid, born of a king and queen, who comes of age and automatically acquires a number of titles. He was "prince" upon delivery, but now he becomes "Duke of This" and "Earl of That." Not that he earned these titles, but he was born to them. His father the king owned the titles and laid them on him for no better reason than that he is his boy. Moreover, the kid receives a honorific military rank without having trained for it or risen through the ranks. Suddenly, there is pinned to his pretentious uniform a junkyard of medals, also as belonging to his title. He is entitled.

I took our young daughter to a student fair at the college where I taught. Standing at the start line before balloons, she was unable to hit any with a dart. My student running the event wanted to allow her to step beyond the required line and move so close she had to burst at least one. I insisted she keep trying from where everyone else was. When she cried at her failing, I hugged her and whispered encouragement to try again. This shocked my student who had never seen such compassion from this professor. (I offered to hug him and whisper in his ear if he would allow it before the class.) He wanted the prof's kid to "win" by entitlement; I wanted my daughter to win by achievement.

Political entitlement, then, is when people expect others (even if everyone else) to solve their problems. They mess up their lives and demand someone else straighten them out. No: they don't want to be straightened out at all but to be treated as if they were.

There are no consequences to bad behavior, only forgiveness. There is no sin, only mistakes. If they lose something, they must be compensated. If they break something, it is replaced.

They don't do their homework and blame the teacher for not reminding them of the deadline. They go hang-gliding and expect Ol' Doc to fix them up. They break the law, and it's the lawyer's job to get them off. They stay away from church and expect the pastor to visit them.

They injure themselves while trespassing on private property and accuse the owner for not having erected an impenetrable wall. They throw their money away and go on welfare.

He kills his parents and begs the court for mercy on an orphan. She fumbles hot coffee and sues McDonald's for serving coffee hot. If it hadn't been hot, she would have sued it for serving coffee warm. They are not illegal aliens but undocumented workers.

American democracy requires equal opportunity, but for the most part rewards are to come by achievement. If even equal opportunity should be inadequate, we chose to give welfare entitlements. What is weakening American society, however, is gratuitously granting entitlement as a result of political manipulation rather than by merit or because of need.

Dr. Wallace Alcorn's column runs each Monday in the Herald