Don’t I Need to Be Fixed Up?Muestra

The Message: Get Busy and Be Perfect

The idea that we humans could by ourselves master the cosmos took hold in the nineteenth century. But it really got rolling in the twentieth—as eye-popping scientific and technological breakthroughs began to accumulate. 

But it wasn’t limited to the external world. It began to occur to us that, over the same period, we might be able to master ourselves too. Inner us. Outer us. We began to believe that, given some time, we might be able to perfect ourselves—and our lives. 

This ethos thrived in our research universities—in the hard sciences and social sciences. It was embraced by academics and practitioners alike. But it was uniquely and remarkably evident in popular culture. 

An 1859 book by a man named Samuel Smiles launched the self-help or personal development genre. His book was a hands-on guide for improving one’s life—and one’s lot in life. It advocated hard work, perseverance, and self-education. 

The book sold well. But the self-help market didn’t explode until several decades later. In the mid-twentieth century, books like How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale all became bestsellers and cultural influencers. 

In his book, Hill captured the message of these (and all) self-help books: “You are the master of your own earthly destiny.… You may influence, direct, and eventually control your own environment, making your life what you want it to be.” 

And mid century Americans knew exactly what they wanted life to be. 

By 1963, more than 90 percent of American homes had television sets. But for all those TVs, there were only three channels: NBC. CBS. ABC. And those networks broadcast what people wanted: westerns, game shows, and sitcoms depicting “perfect” nuclear families. 

Sunny, spick-and-span housewife mothers. Strong, suit-and-tie breadwinner fathers. Smart, smart-alecky, come-around-in-the-end kids. Perfect people. Perfect families. Perfect lives. 

Culture was speaking through pop culture, through books and boxes—boxes in family. 

The message was clear: Get busy and be perfect. 

And everyone was watching.