The Suicide Spectrum:

Hickman: Many seem not to realize that risk aversion is only a softer, gentler, more socially-acceptable expression of a basically suicidal impulse. The "suicide spectrum" is like this: 1. Aversion to risk / Disspiritedness 2. Cynicism / dsigruntlement 3. Aversion to having kids (optional but very common) 4. "Failure to launch," few friends, no ambitions, "stuck" but still functional 5. "What's the point?" / apathy / no actionable life interests of any kind, hikikomori-mode 6. Diagnosable depression and anxiety 7. Masking depression with substance abuse (optional) 8. Suicidal ideation, mental illness serious enough to result in total inability to function even in the easiest environments 9. Actual suicide attempts 10. Successful suicide attempt 11. (Second-order effect) Demographic collapse All eleven of these points are made of the same "stuff," and the first time a fellow feels a lasting nadir in his enthusiasm for life -- he is already well along the path. The logical conclusion of losing one's "lust for life" is death. Interestingly, one's personality type will probably determine whether they linger on one of these steps or whether they go All the Way to step #10. A lot of people stuck in steps 2-6 are so risk averse that they get stuck in a kind of "recursive neurotic loop." Such people are harrowed by the basically heroic action required for both drug abuse and real suicide, and so they just linger in the vestibule between life and death indefinitely. I suspect a LARGE proportion of young people are now doing exactly this. Those who head on to steps 7-10 are usually the types who detest "fakeness," and crave "the truth." But, their conception of what's real and true having been warped by the seed of dispiritedness, the only satisfying "truth" they can find is in death -- unless they have a sudden flash of zeal for life, fall in love, have a Nietzschean epiphany, or even have a legitimate mystical or near-death experience. Any strata of the present-day American culture that will enjoy long-term success will manage to consistently produce, promote, and maintain a mentality that is "happy-go-lucky," "try-it-out-and-see," deeply enthusiastic and risk-tolerant in every domain. Or, in other words, it'd be a culture that is CONSISTENTLY "high openness" -- and by that I mean, not only open to new ideas, risks, and adventures but also open to LIFE and therefore, procreation. This is how Americans very famously used to be, and now no longer are. Something about the techno-bureaucracy we've created has had a widespread "suicide spectrum" effect, and if you want to save America, or the West, or whatever -- you must find a way to counteract it. Notably, the method of counteraction must not ultimately consist of a recursive "loop" back into the suicide spectrum (this is why the politics of disgruntlement always smacks of death). Quite literally, it's "high-openness, happy-go-lucky or DEATH." That's it. Engage in risk-averse, apathetic, or disgruntled behavior at your own peril, and promote it only at the total peril of the society you are a part of.