Bootstrapping

A favorite video of mine (What is Bootstrapping?) came to mind this morning because of a conversation I had yesterday about the concept of people who would be considered "underdogs" of society... those who are below the line of survival and struggle to make ends meet.

The video is about the computer industry's use of the term bootstrapping, but it refers to the origins of the term which, for me, generate even more interest because I find it valuable for understanding humanity.

The entire self-help movement is based upon the bootstrapping concept. The problem with this is that it's use of the term is a false interpretation of it's original meaning. It was meant to refer to something that is impossible. In other words, the inspirational view that the self-help movement advocates is impossible and therefore a delusion. Self-help is literally impossible.

"Early 19th century US; attested 1834. In original use, often used to refer to pulling oneself over a fence, and implying that someone is attempting or has claimed some ludicrously far-fetched or impossible task. Presumably a variant on a traditional tall tale, as elaborated below. The shift in sense to a possible task appears to have developed in the early 20th century, and the use of the phrase to mean “a ludicrous task” continued into the 1920s."

- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps

 

"People understood the expression "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" to mean "attempting to do something absurd" until roughly the 1920s, at which point it started to evolve toward the current understanding: to do something without any outside help. "

- https://zapier.com/blog/you-cant-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps/