Entitlement has two meanings, one straightforward, the other convoluted. The first meaning of entitlement is societal, referring to legal and moral rights that all people share equally. The problematic meaning is psychological and interpersonal:

“My right to have something is superior to your right not to give it to me.”

Obviously, the two meanings of entitlement militate against each other, causing much psychological distress and social conflict.

In 2008, I named this post Anger in the Age of Entitlement. The point I was trying to make is that, on an interpersonal level, anger and entitlement are inextricably linked. If you're angry, you perceive threats to some presumed entitlement, and if you're entitled, you're bound to be angry, as the rest of the world will resist your sense of entitlement.

Insofar as anger is a defender of rights, the more rights you perceive yourself to have, the more frequently you'll get angry. Sometimes, the anger manifests in angry........

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