The Age of Anti-Ambition(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
The Age of Anti-Ambition
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/magazine/anti-ambition-age.html
8 comments
> "Since the pandemic began, Americans’ happiness has cratered"
As if this isn't mostly because of the disruption to normal life caused by the pandemic?
I don't think that paints an accurate picture of the situation. Many people (I would say generations) are coming to terms with an increasingly bleak outlook on their future prospects - and that flies in the face with the sort of American exceptionalism & exponential economic growth that characterized the mid-20th century. People have been sold a tale and that just isn't coming true, and what's worse is that these same demographics often feel overshadowed by previous generations, such as the Baby Boomers. Look at the overall makeup of our government these days - the Speaker of the House & our President are the oldest they _have ever been_. It doesn't feel representative. Rent and real estate prices have sky rocketed almost everywhere, and many people (myself included) are giving up hope of ever owning a home. Climate change also looms large.
The pandemic gave many people an opportunity to pause and reevaluate their life and priorities. I'm part of the demographic that entered the workforce during the Recession of 07/08, where I worked shitty fastfood jobs to survive, and I parlayed it into a career in the restaurant business that I aggressively pursued for a decade+. I would rather put a bullet in my head than go work in a kitchen again. Especially running one. I then started a career in the trades because that seemed like the best economic opportunity for someone with limited education, and I got to work through all of 2020 + 2021 because I was 'essential', but yeah, like the article mentioned, it strongly reinforced my status as disposable and meaningless.
The issues are deeper than 'the disruption [of] normal life.'
I don't think that paints an accurate picture of the situation. Many people (I would say generations) are coming to terms with an increasingly bleak outlook on their future prospects - and that flies in the face with the sort of American exceptionalism & exponential economic growth that characterized the mid-20th century. People have been sold a tale and that just isn't coming true, and what's worse is that these same demographics often feel overshadowed by previous generations, such as the Baby Boomers. Look at the overall makeup of our government these days - the Speaker of the House & our President are the oldest they _have ever been_. It doesn't feel representative. Rent and real estate prices have sky rocketed almost everywhere, and many people (myself included) are giving up hope of ever owning a home. Climate change also looms large.
The pandemic gave many people an opportunity to pause and reevaluate their life and priorities. I'm part of the demographic that entered the workforce during the Recession of 07/08, where I worked shitty fastfood jobs to survive, and I parlayed it into a career in the restaurant business that I aggressively pursued for a decade+. I would rather put a bullet in my head than go work in a kitchen again. Especially running one. I then started a career in the trades because that seemed like the best economic opportunity for someone with limited education, and I got to work through all of 2020 + 2021 because I was 'essential', but yeah, like the article mentioned, it strongly reinforced my status as disposable and meaningless.
The issues are deeper than 'the disruption [of] normal life.'
> As if this isn't mostly because of the disruption to normal life caused by the pandemic?
If you're talking about NYT writers, or HN commenters, probably accurate on average yes but I wouldn't make too many assumptions.
It is a lot of deaths though. I personally am still carrying grief for people lost in that first year, and I know about a million other american families are too.
I don't know if you're lumping those deaths in with "disruption to normal life" because yes sure they are but they are definitely still impacting my happiness a lot more than wearing a mask at the gym or whatever!
If you're talking about NYT writers, or HN commenters, probably accurate on average yes but I wouldn't make too many assumptions.
It is a lot of deaths though. I personally am still carrying grief for people lost in that first year, and I know about a million other american families are too.
I don't know if you're lumping those deaths in with "disruption to normal life" because yes sure they are but they are definitely still impacting my happiness a lot more than wearing a mask at the gym or whatever!
This probably exists somewhere but not in my circles and strictly it's ALWAYS EXISTED. The Cold War led to plenty of people throwing their hands up and "quitting life/ambition".
The other part of the "Great Resignation" (about 33%) is Boomers nearing retirement deciding to retire early. This both removed them from the job market, left a industry knowledge/culture gap and left younger workers without mentors. The impact on employers is that people with a lot less knowledge and experience get thrown into responsibilities that probably either exceed their skills or are made far harder than before. That helps burn-out happen.
The other part of the "Great Resignation" (about 33%) is Boomers nearing retirement deciding to retire early. This both removed them from the job market, left a industry knowledge/culture gap and left younger workers without mentors. The impact on employers is that people with a lot less knowledge and experience get thrown into responsibilities that probably either exceed their skills or are made far harder than before. That helps burn-out happen.
Interesting and weird: pessimism/cynicism seem to take over the "can do" attitude. Lack of ambition is just a manifestation.
I'm not sure about the root cause, but I have noticed something else much more frightening: there seem to be a lot of people who seem to hate society and civilization (ex: count how frequently the Unabomber manifesto is resposted here of all places!).
They come in various names ("accelerationism" etc) and seem to only want destruction, maybe because deep inside, they hate themselves?
I can't help but notice how the types map so perfectly to De Beauvoir types: https://fs.blog/simone-de-beauvoir-ethics-freedom/
> The sub-man is the one who, to avoid disappointment, avoids in engaging. If he doesn’t try, he doesn’t fail.
> The strange character of a universe with which he has created no bond also arouses fear in him. Weighted down by present events, he is bewildered before the darkness of the future which is haunted by frightful spectres, war, sickness, revolution, fascism, bolshevism. The more indistinct these dangers are, the more fearful they become. The sub-man is not very clear about what he has to lose, since he has nothing, but this very uncertainty re-enforces his terror. Indeed, what he fears is that the shock of the unforeseen may remind him of the agonizing consciousness of himself.
This type is frequently present in Rand books: they don't even want to try anything.
Now, they seem to have come back in greater numbers in the modern world!
In case you are curious, the typology is nice to read: next is the serious man:
> And the result is that he never gets this validation because there is always someone with more. The serious man cannot ever admit to the subjectivity of his goals, that he himself identified them as such because to do so would be to acknowledge the subjectivity of his own existence
That defines perfectly well the "techbro" but also the control freaks: "since, despite all precautions, he will never be the master of this exterior world to which he has consented to submit, he will be constantly upset by the uncontrollable course of events."
There's also the adventurer (who doesn't care about others), and the passionate, the closest to freedom, but who fails to "accept the eternal distance he has from the thing which he wants to possess. Love, happiness – freedom comes in recognizing there will always be a distance between us and these things yet aspiring to them anyway"
I'm not sure about the root cause, but I have noticed something else much more frightening: there seem to be a lot of people who seem to hate society and civilization (ex: count how frequently the Unabomber manifesto is resposted here of all places!).
They come in various names ("accelerationism" etc) and seem to only want destruction, maybe because deep inside, they hate themselves?
I can't help but notice how the types map so perfectly to De Beauvoir types: https://fs.blog/simone-de-beauvoir-ethics-freedom/
> The sub-man is the one who, to avoid disappointment, avoids in engaging. If he doesn’t try, he doesn’t fail.
> The strange character of a universe with which he has created no bond also arouses fear in him. Weighted down by present events, he is bewildered before the darkness of the future which is haunted by frightful spectres, war, sickness, revolution, fascism, bolshevism. The more indistinct these dangers are, the more fearful they become. The sub-man is not very clear about what he has to lose, since he has nothing, but this very uncertainty re-enforces his terror. Indeed, what he fears is that the shock of the unforeseen may remind him of the agonizing consciousness of himself.
This type is frequently present in Rand books: they don't even want to try anything.
Now, they seem to have come back in greater numbers in the modern world!
In case you are curious, the typology is nice to read: next is the serious man:
> And the result is that he never gets this validation because there is always someone with more. The serious man cannot ever admit to the subjectivity of his goals, that he himself identified them as such because to do so would be to acknowledge the subjectivity of his own existence
That defines perfectly well the "techbro" but also the control freaks: "since, despite all precautions, he will never be the master of this exterior world to which he has consented to submit, he will be constantly upset by the uncontrollable course of events."
There's also the adventurer (who doesn't care about others), and the passionate, the closest to freedom, but who fails to "accept the eternal distance he has from the thing which he wants to possess. Love, happiness – freedom comes in recognizing there will always be a distance between us and these things yet aspiring to them anyway"
I have some accelerationist friends, and I think their views indeed stem from internal conflict. I don't think I have those internal conflicts, and my views oppose theirs quite radically. I believe our greatest art, inventions, and societies still lay ahead of us, and that, eventually, Everything Will Be Okay. They see civilization as an overall evil whose sacrifices are too great to justify and that is poised to end at any moment. (Hyperbolic paraphrasing.)
Nevertheless, ambition is dangerous, and wanting (and getting) things, on an individual level, is often a treadmill of misdirected (manufactured?) attempt to seize "happiness". Bhuddism always seemed more enlightened than what we have in the West, imo: eliminating wanting itself is not a bad way to go, sometimes. That comes from cultures that broadly strive for "harmony" and contentment vs. "having the ultimate party".
Also, the "adventurer" sounds a little bit like Utahraptor: https://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=14 :p
Nevertheless, ambition is dangerous, and wanting (and getting) things, on an individual level, is often a treadmill of misdirected (manufactured?) attempt to seize "happiness". Bhuddism always seemed more enlightened than what we have in the West, imo: eliminating wanting itself is not a bad way to go, sometimes. That comes from cultures that broadly strive for "harmony" and contentment vs. "having the ultimate party".
Also, the "adventurer" sounds a little bit like Utahraptor: https://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=14 :p
Nietzsche called this person 'The Last Man' and had a lot to say about them.
For the non-paywalled:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220215101935/https://www.nytim...
https://web.archive.org/web/20220215101935/https://www.nytim...
"Since the pandemic began, Americans’ happiness has cratered"
As if this isn't mostly because of the disruption to normal life caused by the pandemic?
To me, there is this small group of very loud social media addicts/writers that would be perfectly happy for this pandemic experience to go on forever since it always provides content to write/post about while basically everyone I know in person is utterly burnt out on the whole experience.