I have had three father figures in my life.  My dad, my sister’s significant other, and a surrogate father.  They all have something in common.  They grew up during the Great Depression and they served in World War two.  Two of them in the Pacific Theater and one in the Italian Theater.

They also all displayed similar characteristics.  Fugality and self reliance.  They did not feel they were entitled to anything.  What they had they earned.  I think that this is the great difference between the "Greatest Generation" and today.  Today people think they are entitled to free health care, housing and education.  Today people feel that someone else is responsible for whatever situation they are in.  They are the last ones responsible, if at all.

I think the Jefferson had it right.  We have the right to pursue happiness.  Happiness is not an entitlement.  We have the right to find a job, work hard to pay for an education, take our earnings and buy a home we can afford.  But the bottom line is that our condition is, and should be, our responsibility.  Government aid should be applied in a manner that helps us, if needed, in our pursuit.  Rather than trying to guarentee the goal of our pursuit.

Neither my mother or father graduated from college.  I was the first.  I worked, I briefly had food stamps, I got help from my mother.  I went to a state school, and one of the less expensive ones at that.  I graduated and went to work.  I saved money.  When I was laid off from my job I had saved enough money to go to grad school and get an MBA.  It was my responsibility, not yours or the government.

I think if more people took personal responsibility for their life we could once again talk about a "greatest generation".  As long as we believe we are entitled I don’t think we can.

I find it incredible that

1. People think that content management systems manage content
2. People think that web based systems remove any requirement that authors understand any html
3. Everyone wants to edit content, but no one wants to learn how to administer a CMS

Point 1.  Content management systems don’t manage content, people manage content.  People may use a content management system to help them, but the system does not manage the content.  The CMS is a tool that people wield.  Content can be managed without a CMS.  Content can be edited without a CMS.  Does a CMS make it easier?  Well it depends.  You can learn to manage/edit content using a filesystem and a text editor.  Basic HTML is not difficult to learn.  Using an ftp client is not difficult.  If you are managing a small site and making all edits yourself, this can be a very simple solution. 

Or you can use a content management system.  But if you are working by yourself, you have to learn the CMS.  Including how to install it, install additional modules you might need, administer it, use it’s editor, create templates, etc. 

Point 2.  Editing in a WYSIWYG editor in a CMS looks easy.  I have heard people describe it as "just like editing in MS Word".  Well, yes, if you are doing simple text editing.  But if you are uploading images, building tables, inserting flash and other useful things that people want to do on the web, then understanding HTML and other web technology is important.

Point 3.  When I’m talking with clients about what they want to do, invariable the response is "I just want to make simple updates to some pages".  Content management systems do so much more than that.  So if that is all you want to do, what are you going to do will all of the baggage that comes with a CMS?  Are you going to apply security updates when they are released?  Are you going to learn how to efficiently upload images?  Are you going to learn the administrative interface?

Content management systems are powerful tools.  In fact, a useful analogy might be to carpentry power tools.  They can be very powerful and make your life easier.  But to use them you have to first be trained as a carpenter.  You have to understand which tool is used for which task.  To many users think that if the just have a CMS installed they can build and maintain web sites.  I would not want to live in a house someone built if all they did was buy some power tools.