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Technological entitlement
Having just visited, last week, the spot where the Wright brothers made the first flight a mere 106 years ago, I was especially struck by this rant about Americans' growing, and annoying, sense of technological entitlement, by the comedian Louis C.K.
He recounts sitting next to a guy on an airplane who got royally peeved when the newly installed plane-based Wi-Fi service conked out, mid-flight: "How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago."
It would make more sense, "LCK" suggests, for airline passengers to spend much of their trips with their mouths agape with awe and delight.
(Hat tip: Matt Kaiser)
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Joshua Rothman is a graduate student and Teaching Fellow in the Harvard English department, and an Instructor in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He teaches novels and political writing.
