Interesting piece. One of my main concerns with the holistic health and online educational fields I’ve been a part of is the emphasis on ‘personal’ responsibility or accountability, sometimes flippantly referred to as ‘empowerment’ without fully considering what ‘empowerment’ might mean. Yes, we can all do the best we can with what we have. And also: we live in a collective, which requires systems, and sometimes those systems do not work well for a few people, or for many people. As one teacher put it, I am one person with needs and desires and goals and skills, in a world with 7 billion other people who also have their own needs and desires and goals and skills. We are part of a complex ecosystem. The context in which we are trying to ‘help ourselves’ is relevant. At times it might be the most relevant set of factors. Blaming the individual for not self-improving is naive, and punitive.
