I think it's three cultural artefacts: 1. American ethos really instills the notion of 'Follow your passion' as a dogma. Life is complicated, and shit happens

I think it's three cultural artefacts: 1. American ethos really instills the notion of 'Follow your passion' as a dogma. Life is complicated, and shit happens, but for americans that genuinely means you failed. (I see this a lot when I try to discuss homelessness and social protection in the US). 2. Follow up from that, 'everyone is special' or 'destined for great things' is a constant movie theme 3. Americans _really_ peg a lot of their self-worth to work. Without fail all the americans I have met open the conversation with 'So, what do you do?' as if how I will be judged is wholy pegged on where I am on the totem pole and how much they can infer income from my occupation. You have made the person as an individual undissociable from the worker as a contributor to someone else's wealth or the gold standard of the self-made man.