The Scourge of Mediocrity: The Mental Health Pandemic in Campuses

 Originally Published: The Galliyo Ka Gazette April'26

“I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” - John D. Rockefeller

Reading Time: 3 Mins 

Introduction

So said Rockefeller, or so is attributed to him, when forming the General Education Board in 1902. It strips away the pretence that education is about ‘learning’ when its real purpose is to build an “obedient” workforce. It stands as a blueprint for a slaughterhouse of human intelligence & creativity. To substantiate this, we have the study of NASA conducted by Dr George Land. The study found that divergent thinking, which is the ability to generate multiple, unique and spontaneous ideas to a problem, which we refer to as “thinking outside the box”, is found in 98% of 4 to 5-year-old children, and they possess a "genius-level’ of divergent thinking. This falls 30% by age 10, 12% by age 15, and only 2% by adulthood. The study states that the decline in creativity is not a natural part of aging, but rather a "learned behavior" taught by the education system. In simple words, geniuses are trained not to be geniuses; they are trained to embrace the phenomenon of mediocrity, to fundamentally rewire their minds & delude themselves into thinking that this is what their nature is.  Today, in this context, students across campuses compete for scholarships, fellowships, and internships while juggling their academic coursework and this competition, coupled with the challenges, has led to a huge crisis of mental health. Much of it has become a classic case of Godhart’s Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure of actual capability. That is, when internships, certificates, and CVs are intended as measures but become targets, they cease to be good measures of actual capability.

The Fallacy

The WHO’s fact sheet of September 2025 states that “Globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds experiences a mental disorder,” and it is about “15% of the global burden of disease…Depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders are among the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15–29 years old.” Some studies have gone on to state that this is a “Mental Health Pandemic”. The immediate solution that occurs to one is to scale up the mental health therapists & psychiatrists. However, these are palliative measures for all cases, excluding those with clinical exceptions and biological factors. The root of the problem must be tackled. Anxiety or Depression arises when one is unsure of one’s value. A human being is a tremendous possibility, the most sophisticated technology on the planet. Now, if you take a Ferrari engine and use it to plough a field at 5km/hr, then the engine will overheat & tear itself apart. Similarly, students aren’t doing “too much”; rather, what they are doing is insignificant. When one’s daily life doesn't match the massive potential of one's intelligence, the resulting friction is what we call "clinical anxiety." Hence, students don’t need therapists; they need a challenge worthy of their existence.

The Cure

In the pursuit of "mental wellness," we have sanctified the "average." We've told students it's okay to just "get by", it’s okay to “procrastinate”. Nevertheless, if the truth be told, mediocrity is the most high-stress environment on earth. Why? Because in the middle, you are replaceable. The "average" student is in a constant state of low-level panic because deep down, they know they have no unique competence. Civilisations & nations aren’t built by the mediocre, they aren’t built by the people who seek “comfort." They are built by those who seek mastery. True mental health is the "unshakeable confidence" that comes from being the best in the room. There are people who treat depression like a ghost that haunts campuses. It isn't. Anxiety is simply the fear of the unknown. To say simply, paucity of competence makes the future terrifying. If one is highly competent, if one has "hustled" to build real-world relations and technical mastery, the future is a playground. The problem is, like Nassim Taleb would say, “lack of skin in the game”. When one develops competence, one's "Mental Health" fixes itself because one is no longer a victim of circumstances; one is the master of them. 

The 'Mental Health Pandemic' on the campuses is not a sign that we are working too hard. It is a sign that we have settled for a life that is too small. The fire of 'Greatness' has been traded for the lukewarm water of the 'Survival Mindset,' and then we wonder why we are shivering. To cure the anxiety, we must kill the culture of mediocrity. The only solution is a generation attuned to Stoicism, which has attained mastery over the self; the idea of an Übermensch must take root, not in some supremacist sense but in the sense of mastery over the self, overcoming conformity and rising above herd mentality.

Unfortunately, intensity and absolute involvement have been mislabelled as "stress". Look at a dancer or a yogi, they are at peak intensity, yet they are blissful. Stress only happens when one is doing something that one doesn't care about, just to survive. Instead of trying to "manage" stress,  we must start increasing our involvement. If you are 100% involved in your growth, your networking, and your nation’s progress, there is no "room" for anxiety to sit. Anxiety is a luxury of the bored and the mediocre.