After wandering with digital nomads, I discovered nightclub culture perfectly embodies our societal illness—everyone pretending to enjoy activities they hate because they think others find them cool. This anthropological bluff extends throughout Western civilization, creating David Riesman's "lonely crowd" where authentic connection becomes impossible. Our society rewards conformity while punishing genuine personality, trapping us in a popularity contest that's destroying meaning, innovation, and human flourishing itself.
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LINKS:
Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0NCSdGglnmdWg-qHALhu1w
Link to my Twitter-https://x.com/whatifalthist
Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlynch/?hl=en
Bibliography:
The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman
On Power by Betrand de Jouvenal
Very Important People by Ashley Mears
The Righteous Mind by Jon Haidt
The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War by Wilfred Trotter
The Psychology of Socialism by Gustave le Bon
The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon
The Crowd by Gustave le Bon
The Coming Caesars by Amaury de riencourt
The Delusions of Crowds by Bernstein
Spiral Dynamics Integral by Beck
Identity by Francis Fukuyama
The Anxious Generation by Jon Haidt
The Muqqahdima by Ibn Khaldun
The Culture of Narcissism by Lasch
The Total State by Auron Macintrye
Nihilism by Seraphim Rose
The Leviathan and its Enemies by Sam Francis
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
Envy by Helmut Schoeck
The Happiness Hypothesis by John Haidt
Behave by Sapolsky
