It seems to me that in great part, what we see happening currently in our society is but symptom of a much larger crisis - a crisis of responsibility on both the Right and on the Left.

On the Right, there is the idea that they have the right to do what they want, without consequence, without accountability, without any responsibility - steal elections, gerrymander, run up deficits, lie to the American people about pretty much everything, make up "facts" out of nothing substantive, you get my drift. It heads in the direction of tyranny in that you hear now in the press that a minority of the country is imposing its will, due to gerrymandered districts, due to voter suppression, due to the stoking of fear and resentment, due to feeling it is OK to buy elections and politicians, due to its leaders feeling entitled to steal, is imposing its will (or trying) on the majority of the citizens of this country.

Our leaders on the Right avoid responsibility like the plague. Nobody - no Senator, no Representative, no Cabinet member, and through many state and local governments, through corporate business leadership, through the undermining of the rule of law, through the levels of corruption that no one even bothers to hide any more, ain't nobody responsible for nothing. They feel entitled to do what want, to take what they want, to bend the rules and the laws to what they want. And it becomes a form of tyranny over the rest of us that we are all at sufferance of.

The free press and, luckily, some federal and state law enforcement agencies are trying to hold people accountable and responsible but, as we are seeing, it is a long hard fight. Freedom indulged in without the balance and tempering of responsibility becomes tyranny and it becomes a sense of entitlement.

On the Left the freedom with no sense of responsibility manifests differently but it is no less tyrannical and no less entitled, though we tend to stay well within the confines of the law. We are at sufferance of the Identity Politics purists and the tyranny they impose. Here I am entitled because I am a member of whatever disadvantaged group with whom I identify. And as a member of that group, I need not hear or countenance that that offends me. And I am egregiously aggrieved and offended by pretty much everything everyone who is not politically correct to the purest and highest form says. I get to demand safe spaces and the vetting and potential censorship of any speech I decide I might not like.

Here is an example and it is a true story. In a discussion in a recent class that a friend attended, a discussion of people running for office came up for whatever reason. One of the attendees made it known that they found the term "running" for office offensive as it was potentially offensive and unjust to disabled people who are not able to run. Now, let's be clear, I am in now way suggesting that social wrongs should not be righted and people made whole. Don't even. Right? But in regard to this kind of example - seriously?

I have the freedom to demand political correctness; I have the right not to hear anything I don't like or want to hear; I have the right to impose the threat of my being offended on everyone so they must walk on eggshells around me for fear of my wrath. And because of my membership in whatever identity group, I am also entitled to feel this way and insist that everybody else feel this way as well. That is a form of tyranny and entitlement.

Further, with the exception of the recent elections and maybe what had become the rule is now broken – please God, please God, please God – is that the Left sabotages itself with these demands of purity. If someone wasn’t progressively pure enough, if we didn’t agree with everything thing they did or said, if their views or voting record did not conform to a strict party line – not unlike that same demand made by the Right on its peeps – then they were no good. Either you were perfect or you were the goat and there was no in between. This led to a rigging of the primary process in the 2016 primaries – something we are not going to litigate here. But the people responsible felt free and entitled to impose their will on the rest of the party and look at where that got us.

Now. Both sides are guilty and we are in the process of leaving a financial and environmental mess for the Millennials to fix and leaving Millennials in a financial mess due to student load debt, exorbitant health and housing costs, stagnant wages because God forbid we raise wages and decrease shareholder value. It is a damned disgrace.

We aren’t being responsible for the environment, health care reform, fully funding education that will prepare people for the new and emerging economy, infrastructure, etc. Instead, we continue to fight the culture wars, trying to impose our will, our values, our understanding, our sense of what matters, our sense of morality, etc., on the other side who we view as ignant troglodyte morons upon whom we are entitled to impose our world view.

Point is that in our world, in our country, in our society we see a lot of tyranny – corporate, political, personal – and a lot of entitlement and lots of hand-wringing over it but very little in the way of responsibility – responsibly responding to the things that really matter most. Where is the seeking middle ground so we can come to some practical solutions? Freedom without responsibility becomes tyranny and freedom without responsibility becomes entitlement and that freedom to dictate to others and to be entitled has now becoming our prison. Time to respond and free ourselves before it becomes too late.

Living Skills offers positive psychology counseling, spiritual counseling and life coaching services in Atlanta for the LGBT community. Also available by Skype. If you have questions, comments or want to find out about our services, please email us at livingskillsinc@gmail.com