I haven't fully thought how to tie this together, but your point of the performance (I believe genuine) of sickness and sick people feeling special is an interesting observation at a time when so many, many young people really do feel mentally ill. I wonder if the fact that this is happening as we transition very rapidly back to being an individualistic society, after the pandemic, when, whatever group you belonged to regarding pandemic precautions, it felt like all families were firmly in a group they did not want to stick out from, and we all taught our children that it was so very important to do what everyone else was...only last year.
I haven't fully thought how to tie this together, but your point of the performance (I believe genuine) of sickness and sick people feeling special is an interesting observation at a time when so many, many young people really do feel mentally ill. I wonder if the fact that this is happening as we transition very rapidly back to being an individualistic society, after the pandemic, when, whatever group you belonged to regarding pandemic precautions, it felt like all families were firmly in a group they did not want to stick out from, and we all taught our children that it was so very important to do what everyone else was...only last year.