I'm of a subtly different mind, I think - but I felt that was the best question to ask to sound the perspective.
Which, as I said, basically boils down to, "it's great to have a dream, but you also have to be a worker bee". Honestly I think it's something that might transcend culture, because it actually makes sense, from a practical standpoint, for people to think that way. If everyone followed their dreams of being artists and athletes or whatever, then not much would get done (which is why I similarly believe the average person is naturally predisposed toward "sleep walking" through life, avoiding difficult questions about existence and reality, since they're not exactly useful things to devote your time to -- again, from a remote, evolutionary standpoint).
Just riffing but I think it's a pretty pressing historical discussion actually. I mean, leveraging agriculture, in a way, led to all of what our civilization calls achievement. It took a leisure class to make advancements. Else all is war and food. And even with individuals freed up to bend themselves towards reality, we still fought about food (land) and the ability to leverage a leisure class.
Class dissociation, as far as we have prevalent historical evidence, is insanity.
We should partake in all aspects, I'd think. We can't afford class specialization as a species.
As to the "sleep walking," I'd hazard that our social and cultural embodiments do far more than evolution to bury a child's possible 'unfolding.' And that is probably my "if the worst were to happen" social scenario: if those who profit from human ignorance were to protect their intellectual holdings (better diet, education, money-greased through the social gears) they might affect both the dumbing down of the plebletariot while continuing to secure their own increasing knowledge. Should that knowledge gap ever become too great, between what the common majority hold as true and actionable knowledge and what the intellectual elite
know to be the leading edge of human understanding, my descendants at least, should I have children, will likely be enslaved for a time, that puts the fearful minority in a dangerously secure position (this is excluding, say, a worse monetary division determining availability of neuroaugmentation... and it spirals out from there)
I'll gladly spend my life trying to affect differently. Shouldn't everyone get a chance to push the bar up and contribute to our human achievement board?
But, in the few cases where I recall people actually straight up ostracizing me for wanting to be a writer and pursuing it adamantly (or otherwise implied such a concept), I either ignored it, or proved myself -- the latter being more difficult, given the nature of writing and reading (it's not like if I wanted to be a singer and I could just bust out singing, writing doesn't really work that way obviously). But, I know there were people among my friends (and to a lesser extent family) who knew I wanted to be a writer but never really took the notion seriously until they actually read something I wrote.
I think I've actually faced a lot more ostracization (though I use that term lightly) for being into philosophy and the nature of reality and all that, and wanting to discuss it with people. So many times I've come up against the mindset of, "Why think about this stuff when none of it matters?" -- which, as far as I'm concerned, is absurd. It only doesn't affect because you haven't engaged it. Again though, I think this ties into people being naturally inclined not to engage with these concepts, often because they lead to scary and uncomfortable areas that make you question the entire foundation of your reality. And, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), most people simply don't want to do that.
I think you've nicely captured my question in these two paragraphs. Basically, I've never been able to turn off that second paragraph mindset, you described, which then motivated my going against most, and any, social grains. However, I meet very few people who can actually tolerate me (I picture myself as Ciphrang now, an odd, indescribable ebb and warp that people retreat from quickly). Lol - I'm seriously lucky I have friends from growing up.
But that doesn't stop me from theorizing dynamic models of engagement with the collective as individuals. Changing curriculum at the moment is best. More purposely subversive entertainment (a la Bakker). Greater dissemination of practical and sustainable knowledge (permaculture, as is being highlighted in the thread), anything that leverages our time from monetary obligations, if we so choose.
Anyhow, just freestyling as always. I've been practicing stream-of-consciousness writing for so long, I think it has had a permanent affect on me.