Preface:
In a world brimming with declarations, doctrines, and demands, this piece questions the very foundation upon which we build our sense of entitlement. It invites you to strip away inherited assumptions, national pride, and societal affirmations—and confront the fragile truth beneath.
Entitled to Nothing is not a cry of despair, but a provocation—an unvarnished exploration of what it means to exist without guarantees, and to recognise that everything we cherish is not owed but extended. Whether you find it uncomfortable, enlightening, or familiar, this reflection asks only one thing:
Read it not as a conclusion, but as a prompt.
Entitled to Nothing
Signed by no gods. Witnessed by no nature. Upheld only by each other.
We are born unannounced,
not summoned by will not be destined by design.
We do not inherit the soil, only the footprint it permits.
Not rights, but permissions, provisional, revocable,
granted by the murmuring tide of culture.
We may speak, if our words are welcomed.
We may love, if our bonds are sanctioned.
We may walk free, until lines on a map say otherwise.
We may believe, until belief becomes inconvenient.
You call them “rights.”
We call them borrowed favours, fleeting affordances
bestowed by systems that tremble with their own fragility.
There are no eternal charters carved in cosmic stone,
no divine signatures validating our pride.
Only each other, fallible, ephemeral,
to uphold the stage on which we pretend permanence.
So, we ask not for freedoms,
but for grace,
for humility in power,
for compassion in permission.