On Being Entitled

Young people are often accused of having too strong a sense of entitlement. Is the accusation fair? As with all generalisations, yes and no and somewhere in between. Some youngsters certainly appear to believe that the world should revolve around them and react unfavourably when it unaccountably fails to do so. Some have sussed out that the world is happily indifferent to them and their needs and they need to make their own way through it without complaining overmuch about the damage it inadvertently does to them. Most fall somewhere within these extremes. And, I suspect, it has been ever so, though I think there might be a reasonable case for saying that in some parts of the world, essentially the fortunately prosperous bits, the pendulum may have swung in the direction of greater numbers of those who consider themselves the centre of all things. I can't think of much of a remedy for this except patient and occasionally strident reminders that to such types that this is not the case. Mind you, simple reality will provide plenty of these.

However I do think that there's one aspect of what one might characterise as the business of entitlement that's very obviously of deep personal value. I'm pretty sure that most of us can recognise our own slightly crazy sense of just how entitled we are if we turn the accusation on ourselves. A salutary exercise and, as you rightly surmise, I speak from embarrassed and embarrassing experience.

Of course, you're entitled to your own opinion on all this. And I'm entitled to tell you when you're wrong. Hah!