The Disease of Entitlement

Formally speaking, entitlement means to have an official right to have or do something.

So, what’s so wrong about being entitled? If you have the official right to own a car or a house then what’s so sick about it?

In this context when we talk about entitlement, it is in the context of social situations. So, how are social situations and entitlement relevant? Before we dive into the topic, let’s create an imaginary scenario here :

You’re sitting in the class and the lecturer calls out your name, you stand up a bit awkward and late, someone from the classes passes a comment making fun of the way you got up without explicitly mentioning you. You immediately feel attacked, the comment was a lighthearted one meant to be a joke but it doesn’t sit well with you, you blow up on the person who made a joke on you starting an argument disrupting the entire class into a chaotic environment and now, you’re furious because you feel entitled to be respected, the person who passed the comment feels entitled because he has the right to say whatever he feels like and he thinks he is exercising his freedom of speech.

See the problem here? As individual and as personal entitlement sounds to ones temperament, it almost always affects the other person. Am not here to say what’s right or wrong but instead to express my opinion on the day to day fights and arguments occurring because of people feeling too entitled, arguments which should not have been caused in the first place probably because they started from something lighthearted which could have been brushed off but instead was used as an opportunity to be loud and chaotic.

Do not get me wrong, the above example wasn’t the most perfect one and surely there were things which were universally wrong but the whole purpose of the example is to highlight on a specific condition in a specific situation.

We would love to have an and live in an ideal world but the practical reality is, that we do not live in an idealistic world, people will not respect you just because you feel ENTITLED to be respected, people will only respect you if you PROVE to be respected. Due to the increase in comfort in modern day countries, people growing up in comfortable environments feel entitled to them instead of being humble and taking it as a blessing, which unlike in third world countries, due to the absence of such comfortable assets, people actually value it and feel grateful for it.

This entitlement once developed at younger ages can go on to be with the person throughout his ages and adulthood unless rectified with an open mind. The reason i call this sort of negative entitlement a disease is because since people get what they want without striving much due to wonderful and hardworking parents, they develop a personality that the world will give them whatever they want or desire, which is absolutely false, realistically you only get what you work for.

This negative entitlement really shines in social situations where a person often plays a victim (specifically about people who pretend to be victims and aren’t actually victims) to gain attention and feel valuable which he is entitled to instead of earning it (the context is extremely necessary here, not everyone does it for attention and some may need genuine help, best is to not be quick to judge others).

An example of this can be a person sitting in a job interview talking about how life has failed him and everyone cuts him off, while all of this may be true and sad, a job interview isn’t the right place to be whining about your sorrows, because it gives the impression that you’re entitled to all of the things you don’t have (which may even be true) but the practical reality is that you have to earn it. The interviewer who intends to know about the technical expertise of the person has now been exposed to someone who is negatively entitled, the same way the man FEELS entitled to get the job, the corporate IS entitled to hire the ones who bring value to the company.

TLDR/Lesson : As much as a person even if legally is entitled to something, one must do his best to achieve the things through hardwork and strive instead of feeling like they “deserve” it. Such entitlements, especially in social situations in regards to ego and self esteem lead to selfish one sided attention seeking which not only portrays you as an immature person but also portrays that you have a personality which is affected with the disease of entitlement instead of the humility to work hard.