I was watching one of those modern-Westerns, a crime show. Old cowboys Westerns, we know, are mystifications of the US’s most recent manifest-destiny past.  BlackCommentator.com readers know this unreality because of our specific knowledge of the historical reality [that 40% of cowboys were black] is one of the missing or mischaracterized facts in the mystification. This perspective accompanies my viewing of the modern-westerns, the crime show, knowing that truth cannot be found there, either. There are many absent realities, too, in crime shows.

But the main male character in the show I was watching, a Sherlock Holms knock-off, said the following in a scene: “The feeling of entitlement can justify bad behavior.” I was struck numb from the profundity of this statement. It is profound in the context of the manifest-destiny-thrust [a bad behavior] that is mystified in western genre and mythologized in crime stories. The truth of a human experience is ‘painted over’ into a legend. Always be suspicious of legends! The retellings of past human experiences are almost always poor approximations of the multilevel, complicated reality. And even contemporary retellings of experiences, shrouded in the dark corners accessible only to “experts” and/or places you do not have the security clearance to see with your own eyes, are often poor approximations. The viewers of these retellings lose from what they cannot directly know with their own body, mind, and spirit. The work of real crime fighters is one of those experiences largely only accessible to experts and the security cleared. We are misled when we think the stories convey true reality; therefore, my surprise at the depth of truth that flowed from the mouth of a detective in this crime story.

Profoundly, this statement of this Sherlock Holms knock-off about entitlement reaches to the gut of much of the misery that one human being causes another. Entitlement can justify very bad behavior. It is the legends through which entitlements are conferred; rewriting the legend is most often the dominant interest of those who have achieved entitlement status. They always have a limited perspective and a limited point of view, and they often stretch the truth to disguise or fail to reveal parts that are not worthy of legend. It is this obscured knowledge then that facilitates the next generation’s bad behavior. Mimicking legends can lead you astray. You are the only example of who you really are. Each of us must actualize what is within our ken. And question distant information.

Those who maintain this kind of Buddhist presence in life greatly prize the stranger. Meeting, seeing and talking directly with the stranger is, potentially, the most profound expanding of ken possible. Those who allow legends to channel their choices are often fearful of the stranger. When one begins with fear, the interaction is potentially hostile. I can imagine the mental rationalizing when encountering the other:  ‘there is nothing of much value I can know from this hostile; he/she is not entitled, I am entitled.’ The sin of entitlement justifies the heaviest blow while it cripples direct knowing. Every wisdom tradition I know cautions humbleness in every circumstance.

It was Roman Emperor Constantine who brought entitlement into Christianity; before him, choosing to be a Christian meant choosing to be persecuted and destitute. There was very little entitlement. First century Christians deserved to be treated with human dignity; entitled Romans justified barbarity. Our Western cultural legends - including crime shows - perpetuate justified barbarity.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Wilson Riles, is a former Oakland, CA City Council Member. Click here to contact Mr. Riles.