By now most people in this sub are familiar with the term mass formation, and that it's a new term to describe a phenomenon that has been around as long as mankind.

Brief and hopefully accurately, to provide a point of reference to what I really want to get at, here are the four pre-conditions Mattias Desmet says are necessary for mass formation to occur:

• social isolation, lack of social bonds

• a lack of meaning-making; he talks about the study that found a huge percentage of people "sleepwalking through their jobs" because they don't find meaning in them

• free-floating anxiety with no object. Without knowing what causes the anxiety you can't avoid it, i.e., get relief.

• free-floating frustration and anger, same lack of object/mental image.

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When asked about the common characteristics of those who resist mass formation, all he could say was that it's always a heterogeneous group (which kind of sounds like this sub).

Even people who have spent their careers studying mass formation don't know the answer, but maybe we can learn from asking ourselves and each other.

I sort of kick-started the discussion in another comment thread when I said this:

The answer undoubtedly ties into the larger issue of the four necessary pre-conditions - the lack of social bonds, lack of meaning-making, free-floating anxiety and frustration. What do the resisters do differently? A commenter on one site posited this, which sounds plausible though it's not the entire answer, that people with an internal locus of control who are adept at emotional self-management are maybe able to manage their feelings and fears on their own and think more clearly on issues.

I got a very satisfying reply from u/Sdl5, which I'm posting here in hopes it will get others thinking:

That last para tho! ✅🎯😹

I have always felt outside the expected social boxes assigned. And while I matured late in real world experience and understanding I had a strong internal sense of my values and words/actions matching instilled consistently from a young age.

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Able to see the irrational or clique behaviors and- YES- judge those participating while actively avoiding as much as humanly possible.

Have often had an internal FFS IS MGMNT IDIOTS?!?!?! op-ed while dealing with corp/office decisions that seem utterly opposite of smart or effective. IOW, most of the time one is decided lol. But keep my mouth shut unless it makes my job impossible- then they slam into the side of a granite mountain with no fear of being loud and difficult. Noooot exactly promotion material. 💁

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My mouthy stubborn opinionated chatty sharing to downright fight over it here personna is my internal dialogues finding a healthy outlet to engage with other smart people even when we disagree- and sometimes smack the idiots like I would not do in person. My bad.

But I have tight bonds with loved ones regardless of this insanity, and no real anxiety or even frustration- just a low level disgust when I have to think about it.

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It stays in it's box on a shelf otherwise, I have my other mindset in operation while running errands or interaction in gigs etc, and am generally cheerful and friendly in a casual busy way to everyone then. And I mean it, it is not a mask.

Which is the emotional step back in action.

I can almost clinically analyze even myself, and this makes it pretty easy to REassess where I might have gone wrong or had false beliefs.

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I find it puzzling that this is combined with a rarely triggered but absolutely berserker temper where I am somehow literally seeing red and yet coldly thinking step by step while swiftly moving to do great bodily harm or kill "them". Thank god my face is expressive and targets have always turned tail and bailed at one look.

But it takes something very bad to get there.... very bad.

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On the flipside, I have always worried I did not FEEL as deeply as others described in relationships outside love for my children, and only with time did I understand most people are creating a fantasy front vs being honest about how it is.

I just have a hard cutoff switch if you violate my trust or cross my few absolute lines, and everyone else is addicted to drama and will keep involved even when supposed totally unacceptable happens. I will go hard pragmatic cold deal with all aspects to be completely done and never look back.

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But I also now understand I am fully capable of an all-consuminy passion and unshakable love too- just about when I realized almost NO one else is irl vs their public narratives. So maybe I am the oddball out here too...

I blame it all on my Gemini Sun and Venus at war with my Capricorn Saturn, Moon and all.of them ignoring Cancer Mercury most of the time 😹😹😹💁🎯

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A lot of this rang a bell for me, how about you? Why do you think you've resisted?