What you shouldn't think
A measure of precarious mental health is the distance between the
person you really are and the person you present. I think it was Erik
Fromm who said that.<p>My sense is that the hyper-normative &quot;correct&quot; credo presented by mass
media and social media is an equal and opposite response to something.<p>The paradigmatic selfie-taking &quot;successful professional&quot; who says and
does all the right things has never seemed more a neurotic wreck
underneath. The soul must pay for the energy it takes to maintain that
appearance.<p>But also on a societal level, governments mobilising against hate
speech and fake news, and the power of niche outrage groups, is
proportional to the explosion of diversification and difference under
the surface of &quot;post-modern&quot; society.<p>In other words, people <i>act</i> more normal than ever, but underneath
feel more deviant and alienated than ever. That&#x27;s somehow connected
with the real roots of &quot;imposter syndrome&quot;. No doubt it&#x27;s a well
recognised phenomenon amongst sociologists and probably has a name I&#x27;m
ignorant of.