What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives. Yet the message of the right is increasin… - JD Vance

It was, Uncle Jimmy told me, 'a typical middle-class life'. Kind of boring, by some standards, but happy in a way you appreciate only when you understand the consequences of not being boring.

Psychologists call it “learned helplessness” when a person believes, as I did during my youth, that the choices I made had no effect on the outcomes in my life. From Middletown’s world of small expectations to the constant chaos of our home, life had taught me that I had no control. Mamaw and Papaw had saved me from succumbing entirely to that notion, and the Marine Corps broke new ground. If I had learned helplessness at home, the Marines were teaching learned willfulness.

Nothing compares to the fear that you’re becoming the monster in your closet.