Folklore Institute

“Both responses — the endless work on the self, the surrender to your greater family — are reactions to the same underlying pressure. Individualism promised that you could define yourself. Instead, it made you responsible for justifying your existence.

Both paths lead to the same place: the feeling that you, alone, are not enough. That if you cannot perfect yourself and be seen, or belong to something absolute, you will simply cease to exist. The promise of the Human Potential Movement was that everyone could be more. What we live with now is the hangover: the conviction that we must be.”

“Both responses — the endless work on the self, the surrender to your greater family — are reactions to the same underlying pressure. Individualism promised that you could define yourself. Instead, it made you responsible for justifying your existence.

Both paths lead to the same place: the feeling that you, alone, are not enough. That if you cannot perfect yourself and be seen, or belong to something absolute, you will simply cease to exist. The promise of the Human Potential Movement was that everyone could be more. What we live with now is the hangover: the conviction that we must be.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/defaultfriend/p/looksmaxxing-and-human-potential