The Continual Rise of Toxic Self-Help Culture In 2023
The desire for perfection has us buying something called “sex dust”
In 2022, it was predicted that the self-help/self-improvement industry was worth $13.2 billion. In a uniquely American phenomenon, the self-improvement industry has steadily grown since the foundation of the country on the idea that anyone could make a new life for themselves if they simply tried hard enough.
Here’s a brief “self-help” timeline for you:
1776: Declaration of Indpendence
1850: Self-Help by Samuel Smiles. Published in the UK, it eventually sold more copies in America, promoting the idea that man(and only man at the time it was published) could remove obstacles in the way of his societal rise.
The Post-War Self-Help Era: Magic of Thinking Big, Atlas Shrugged, Look Younger, Live Longer, The Power of Letting Go (kidding, I made that one up-but it wasn’t hard, all these titles are SO generic)
The 60s/70s New Age-y Self Help Era: Think Osho. Think yoga comes to the West. Think “exotic”. Think sex cults. This era gave rise to some of the greatest evils of our time; Goop, Sex Dust, and the idea that Tantra is all about sex. *facepalm*( Here’s some info about what Tantra is- sex aside).
