On Entitlement
Entitlement stems from an inaccurate assessment of both one’s abilities and one’s struggles. You tell yourself a story about who you are and gradually begin to believe it. That story may revolve around being mistreated, around deserving better treatment, or around a poor understanding of where you actually stand on the social ladder. It is this lack of awareness of the world, combined with excessive self-aggrandisement, that creates a distorted identity—and that distortion gives rise to entitlement.
We often blame privileged children for behaving rudely toward people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. We assume that because they have never struggled, they fail to understand what survival entails. This absence of perspective inflates their sense of self-importance, leading them to treat everyone else as insignificant. Yet the underlying logic remains the same: a false sense of identity born out of limited awareness.
Entitlement is not exclusive to the privileged. Those who have suffered deeply are equally susceptible. They believe that suffering grants them the right to lecture others, or to behave poorly. Instead of offering a sympathetic ear, they default to magnifying their own pain. Once again, the root issue is a lack of awareness of the broader world. Your grief matters to you, but it is not the only grief that exists. Life continues, and the world moves forward. It cannot pause indefinitely for you to finish suffering.
Then there are those who believe they are more important simply because they work longer hours than their superiors. Imagine a mason laying bricks arguing that he is more important than the architect who designed the building. He forgets that while his work is important, it is not unique. He is replaceable. A mason lecturing an architect on the importance of the work reveals a failure to understand how value is actually created and measured.
This is not to suggest that any work is unimportant. However, entitlement based purely on effort requires an honest evaluation of the value that effort produces. A consultant is highly paid because they generate greater economic impact. A chef is more valuable than someone who cooks purely as a hobby at home.
The only way to deal with entitlement is to recognize that we are all cogs in the wheel, not the wheel itself. There is always a bigger fish. Entitlement should not arise from suffering or privilege, but from the value one adds to the world. And if you truly understand how to add value to someone’s life, you would never cheapen it by being entitled about it.