It’s Their Fault

“Follow your bliss.”

It’s a classic boomer rallying cry - if you believe in it, you can do it; if it comes to you, you deserve it - and it’s a theory continues to massage Boomer egos today, often in bestselling form.

Joseph Campbell, of course, was the American mystic and writer who delivered this somewhat vague message of salvation and - despite his many positive contributions to the country’s spiritual life - his legacy is closely tied with that of the Boomers (and not in a good way).   It is well known know that the “follow your bliss” was taken on by the hedonistic 80’s-era crowd as a guilt-free excuse for “personal aggrandizement” and “self-fulfillment” (often by means of getting rich and doing drugs), but Campbell’s style and body of work also had more subtle, and perhaps more destructive effects, as you’ll see in the links after the jump.

Click here for a well argued takedown of Campbell by Robert Segal, as well as a famous polemic by Brendan Gill.