It's Not Normal. It's an Extinction Burst.
With great change comes great tantrums.
Fifty years ago, B.F. Skinner said something truly prophetic during an interview. As he put it, "things go bad when you make a fetish out of individual freedom and dignity. If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down."
He was right.
If you look around, there's an excessive sense of personal entitlement these days. It's not coming from any particular generation. It's everywhere. Nobody wants to give up anything for a greater good or a brighter future. They're obsessed with their short-term comfort. They go around talking about their own freedoms all the time.
They don't care about anyone else's.
When you even suggest limiting or giving up anything, you face epic levels of backlash. The same thing happens when reality proves anyone wrong. The denial and wishful thinking don't fade.
They get worse.
We saw this behavior on a global scale at the recent COP summit, where billionaires and oil executives acted like spoiled ki…