Perhaps it’s inherently American, this idea that you CAN have it your way, an innate sense of entitlement — even arrogance — that, on the one hand, has its merits (the very foundation of our constitution, for example). 

A preemptory bumption perpetuated by Democracy.  Capitalism.  The American Dream.  Liberal Arts degrees.  Starbucks, among other things. 

So that on the other hand, it’s this very country-born hubris/desire which induces the most insipid sort of denial, known to induce fabricated reworkings of reality from weapons of mass destruction to bedtime stories.

Worse, arrogance hinders imagination:

“Imitation is not the highest form of flattery.  Imitation is the last, and sometimes the only, resort of the terminally unimaginative.  When Britpop icons Blur emerged on a sea of rewritten Ray Davies songs, a lot of people compared them with the Kinks.  The difference was, the Kinks weren’t copying anybody.  So, sorry to rain on your Coldplay parade, but whatever magic spark you’re hoping will raise your band to a new plateau, you’re not going to find it sniffling around the local used record store, wondering what the heroes of the past came up with when they were stuck for word to rhyme with YouTube.”  — Dave Thompson

I love Blur but that dude has a point.

Same goes for accountability; just because you CAN drink a triple-shot of espresso dumped over ice (sacrilege!) doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

Which is all the long way of saying standards must be maintained.  Whether it’s the next leader of the free world, the thickness of the foam on your cappuccino or the quality of music you choose to make… at a certain point, there is no subjective.  It’s either good or as Lemony Snicket might put it, very unpleasant.