The dangerous and addictive fantasy of “unlimited potential” | Kate Bowler

Americans perfected the genre of building a perfect life, rooted in religious beliefs about the mind's power, the beginning of positive thinking. This belief in unlimited upward mobility emerged in the late 19th century as Americans adapted to city life and inequality. Self-help, a significant American literary contribution, provides formulaic practices to improve lives and explain away luck, based on philosophical and religious presuppositions. Americans believe there is always a solution, consuming "how-to" guides for self-making. These are often religious beliefs, like the Prosperity Gospel, which views faith as a power to transform thoughts into reality, ensuring good things happen. The enemy of endless growth and optimization is mortality and human frailty. Our culture struggles to accept suffering and fragility, hiding our breakable nature. The speaker advocates for accepting the world as finite, beautiful, and terrible, reintroducing emotional and spiritual range. By ceasing to solve everyone's problems, we can live richer lives, be more patient with life's variations, and foster deeper relationships, witnessing life's full height and depth.