People forget their purpose while being carried by societal pressures.

Evidence

I forget altogether in what direction I started, and abandon my oars. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 179

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 179
• XREF: connects to: Mindlessness leads to habitual or auto-pilot consumption behaviors where individuals fail to focus on the present moment. — Mindfulness through agency in health consumption …; The absence of a value system leads to nihilism and despair. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 83; The state precedes the individual because humans achieve their full purpose only within society — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 802 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Ideologies act on people structurally through a process that escapes them #expands (0.80)
• Overwhelming objective culture forces individuals to exaggerate their peculiarities #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 760
• Reading a society’s direction requires informed detachment #qualifies (0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 734
• Ideology masks class by fragmenting people into individuals bound as consumers and citizens #expands (0.75)
• Society presupposes a harmony between its structure and individual inner callings #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 191