Growing up, I spent most Sundays in Billerica at my grandparents’ house, opposite my grandfather, playing chess or some other board game.

With the anchors of NPR speaking in the background, I remember many moments in which my grandfather would comment on the state of the world under his breath.

I would ask him what he said, and he would nonchalantly pretend that what he said didn’t matter, secretly hoping that I would enquire further – which was something I always did. Generally, in these instances, I was informed that our country was a mess and that the days ahead were going to be more difficult than those that had passed. This education in worldly things began, I’m sure, as soon as I was able to speak and listen, or maybe even earlier.

You see, I am from a family of curmudgeons, and I am very proud, nay, honored to consider myself one of them, to be yet another individual among the rank of the moderately dissatisfied. I can assure you that I am in excellent company. Now that I have branded myself a cynic, I will now commence to tell you about some things I think are wrong with popular American ideology from my perch here in the Pioneer Valley.

As Jon Stewart stated at the Rally to Restore Fear/Sanity, ‘’we live now in hard times, not end times,’’ and I believe he is right. The economy isn’t doing too hot, and each of us either feels it or will feel it. You could be one of the lucky ones with both parents currently employed, and the question of returning next semester isn’t constantly on your mind.

Life right now may seem pretty secure, but keep in mind that in the next couple of years you will be graduating, becoming part of that terrifying realm known as the ‘’real world.’’ Personally, I’m hoping for graduate school as a means to put off Judgment Day for just a little longer. Oh, and to further my education as well.

America needs social change in the form of an overhaul of our prevailing ideologies.  An unfortunate tendency I see out there in America is an obsession with the word ‘’entitlement.’’ American popular culture promotes the idea that if an individual does ‘’A,’’ they then deserve ‘’B.’’ A person may go to college, skip a few lectures and assignments and then complain that their grades are mediocre. They may even feel self-righteously indignant in regards to their grade, asserting that they went to most classes and that they are entitled to a better grade. Later on, they may feel indignant again when they are unable to get a job, assuming that because they went to college they are entitled to a good job.

It is a mistake to think that just because someone sits through something, such as a college class, and puts forth the minimum effort required, they should then expect an ideal or even tolerable outcome. Every situation in life has an outcome and that result is what you make of it. You can’t always just start rioting because a football game doesn’t end the way you want it to end.

Young adults should learn to live with less materialistic values. Consume less. Many of America’s problems stem from our addiction to instant gratification.

Popular American ideology advances the idea that we should be entitled to big cars, big houses and cheap entertainment. Popular American ideology manufactures laziness and fosters a culture that believes individuals operating effortlessly in work ethic cruise control are entitled to an ideal outcome.

As the mighty Maynard James Keenan, frontman for the bands’ Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, said in a recent speech during the Arizona state centennial, people need to learn to ‘’work more for less.’’

The young, up-and-coming generations, need to learn to work hard for less and to purge the desire for instant gratification.

Jeffrey Bagdigan is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].