OK, this comic stuck in my head after I saw it, and I think I need to write a response or it’s just going to stay there. The gag is good for a quick joke, but pretty terrible as actual life advice goes. Both characters are wrong, because they are working from the premise that there is a singular barrier to success. There are two main kinds of barriers, and you need to understand both.
First, let’s talk about external barriers- such as CAPITALISM. Because if you claim these don’t exist, you are probably doing so from a place of extreme privilege. It is difficult to see barriers that don’t exist for you, but that makes it easy to hold other people back because you won’t understand their situation. Debt, prejudice, harassment, a past criminal record, demands on time, and physical impairments are all barriers people may face as they try to make a life for themselves. It is helpful to be aware of the external barriers that stand in your way, and to acknowledge that your ability to remove them completely, especially without help, is probably limited.
But if you only acknowledge your external barriers, you are setting yourself up for failure. I saw several people in the notes on this post who stated they didn’t see how they could be standing in their own way, that that would imply there wasn’t actually anything between them and their goals. So I’m going to break it down for you. YOU (yes, you) are NOT a singular, conscious, rational entity who sets a goal and follows it. YOU (yes, you) are a multitude. You are an amalgam of memories, beliefs, ideas, traumas, triumphs, relationships, and dreams. You are riddled with contradictions and flaws. And when you don’t examine them, you can’t process how they affect you as you try to build a career, or a relationship, or a life. Failure to account for your internal barriers can lead to falling into patterns of failure that don’t move you forward or help you grow.
As a personal example, I realized recently that I have a deep-seated fear of being a nuisance, and it’s a pretty big internal barrier towards working to improve my life. It causes extreme anxiety when I have to ask for help, or don’t know how to handle a situation at work, or report a problem to my landlord, or try to broach a serious topic with someone who disagrees, or try to make a new friend, or try to contact an old one. Now that I’m aware of it, I’m also aware that it’s necessary to be a nuisance sometimes. You can’t be alive and not be a nuisance at times. I’m very hopeful that this will help me improve my life.
And the good news about internal barriers is that you can work on them, once you know they are there. They probably won’t go away completely, but you can become aware of the patterns they create and work to change them. That’s the big difference between internal and external barriers, and why paying attention to the internal ones is so important- you do have some control over them. That’s why the comic bothered me so much. Blaming all your problems on external barriers makes it much, much harder to make progress. And, external barriers usually aren’t as impenetrable as they appear. People do get out of debt. People do find love and create art and all kinds of stuff. If you work on the internal barriers, you have a better chance of finding a way around -or through- an external one.
Another personal example. I have a significant visual impairment, and as a result, I spent most of my life believing I can’t be an artist. The visual impairment itself is an external barrier. I can’t do anything about it, and it does actively hinder my ability to do certain things. But the belief about it was an internal barrier. Once I actually started drawing and painting, I found that I can make art that at least makes me happy. The internal barrier was paper thin, and it tore when I put pressure on it. Now, I don’t feel like I’m good enough to be a professional, and I feel like I can’t be good enough because I didn’t start when I was younger. And those are internal barriers, too. If I committed to being a professional artist, I could tear those barriers down, because I am the only reason they are there.
The message of this comic is super harmful if taken seriously, because if you deny the existence of internal barriers in yourself, you’ll just keep blaming your problems on outside influences you have limited control over, instead of working on the area you can improve. The inverse of this comic would be super harmful, because it leads to a lack of compassion. Compassion is absolutely necessary to dismantle external barriers to others’ happiness, and to acknowledge that the internal barriers people are struggling with are things they may need help or understanding with.
One, final note, on the importance of examining internal barriers. It is my personal theory that a major cause of political extremism, especially fascism, is a failure of introspection. People who are chronically angry or unhappy, but who have a deep aversion to examining their internal barriers and contradictions will look for any external barriers to happiness they can find. And the thing about looking for a problem outside yourself is that you can always find one, even if it’s not real.