Entitlement

While driving for 26+ hours between Kansas City and Pittsburgh, I came upon the concept of entitlement very often. It occurred in the form of people cutting others off sharply, to shamelessly tailgating, even getting love-bumped during a traffic jam.

Entitlement: obtaining good grades, having people accept you, there existing a girl (or guy) who likes you for who you are (or aren't). We feel like we are entitle to have hatred/malice, holding grudges, deserving forgiveness, or seeking vengeance. We feel entitled to have people to care about us, to respect us, to seek us out as special in their lives.

Maybe another word for entitlement is selfishness, which is then idolatry of self.

He (Jesus) who was entitled to everything instead gave it all up to save us. Compared to any of us, Jesus deserves all entitlement.

“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important (or, accepted). They don’t mean to do harm, but the harm does not interest them … or they do not see it, or they justify it … because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves” - T. S. Eliot