salon | A June 2013 Gallup poll revealed
that 70% of Americans hate their jobs or have “checked out” of them.
Life may or may not suck any more than it did a generation ago, but our
belief in “progress” has increased expectations that life should be more
satisfying, resulting in mass disappointment. For many of us, society
has become increasingly alienating, isolating and insane, and earning a
buck means more degrees, compliance, ass-kissing, shit-eating, and
inauthenticity. So, we want to rebel. However, many of us feel hopeless
about the possibility of either our own escape from societal oppression
or that political activism can create societal change. So, many of us,
especially young Americans, rebel by what is commonly called mental
illness.
While historically some Americans have
consciously faked mental illness to rebel from oppressive societal
demands (e.g., a young Malcolm X acted crazy to successfully avoid
military service), today, the vast majority of Americans who are
diagnosed and treated for mental illness are in no way proud malingerers
in the fashion of Malcolm X. Many of us, sadly, are ashamed of our
inefficiency and nonproductivity and desperately try to fit in. However,
try as we might to pay attention, adapt, adjust, and comply with our
alienating jobs, boring schools, and sterile society, our humanity gets
in the way, and we become anxious, depressed and dysfunctional.
