“The people have won — or ‘the slaves’ or ‘the mob’ or ‘the herd’ or whatever you like to call them. ‘The masters’ have been disposed of; the morality of the common man has won.”
“Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.”
-Nietzsche
Traditionally and culturally, I was brought up in an environment where I was encouraged to seek ‘conformity’, ‘likability’, and often explicitly asked to succumb to the popular opinions or expectations of those around me rather than question the provenance of their set standards or existing framework.
The sense of futility ingrained by hostile imitation leads us to seek significance by pretending we don’t really want to succeed. “If everything worth doing has already been done, you may as well feign an allergy to achievement and become a barista,” Thiel mockingly counsels. The politics of conformity imposes painful contradictions: its egalitarianism cannot satisfy our envy, and its individualism cannot satisfy our pride.
