I mean, pressure to perform was as intense in the past, if not moreso. Subsistence farmers literally starve if they perform poorly. Communities die, and are strongly interconnected (and lean on each other with immense, suicide-inducing pressure for not carrying one’s fair share or violation of taboos).
What makes modern pressure bad is not that it’s worse than previous forms of pressure, but that if we structured our society in a less-fucked way, we are materially well-off enough to not need that absurd level of pressure.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that there never has been pressure in the past. Though I would imagine, the type of pressure and expectations changed.
For me, it feels like current societal pressure is more abstract, making it far harder to really live up to it. But it might seem this way due to hindsight.
I mean, pressure to perform was as intense in the past, if not moreso. Subsistence farmers literally starve if they perform poorly. Communities die, and are strongly interconnected (and lean on each other with immense, suicide-inducing pressure for not carrying one’s fair share or violation of taboos).
What makes modern pressure bad is not that it’s worse than previous forms of pressure, but that if we structured our society in a less-fucked way, we are materially well-off enough to not need that absurd level of pressure.
You ignore the internet and people now being able to be aware of the horrors of the world.
Considering the kind of mass-panics experienced by communities in past ages, not sure that ignorance is really bliss. Ignorance is paranoia, maybe.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that there never has been pressure in the past. Though I would imagine, the type of pressure and expectations changed.
For me, it feels like current societal pressure is more abstract, making it far harder to really live up to it. But it might seem this way due to hindsight.