So we changed our focus to helping people learn critical thinking and self-management skills. It's made the world of difference. In fact, I'm an extremely positive and optimistic person. This is called a paradox, and such phenomena stimulate me to no-end. I get a real kick out of watching clueless politicians and moral do-gooders manipulate varied communities to protect their own interests and mindsets.
Most people learn helplessness very early in life.
Because society largely operates on control and command structures. Few can recover from conditioning in such cultures over time. The norm is indeed Thoreau s lives of quiet desperation. They know they're going to die and feel depressed about it, so they eat and drink more. They also seek in vain and search in vain for a little bit of fun of satisfying fun before they die.