Thanks - this brings up something I was thinking about. The feeling of incompetence may be more nebulous in origin than the misplaced words of specific people -- nobody is telling me that I'm incapable of doing certain things except my own inner voices. That's what is puzzling -- where did those voices come from? Possibly parents and schools, but there may be more to it than that.

Certain enterprises surely would have a lot to gain from convincing the population that it is too incompetent to do anything on its own, and that it should always "call someone" to get anything done correctly. This attitude probably has been in existence to some extent as long as there have been guilds, but I think it has become much worse in the past 50 years or so.

For example, rialian's father is way more capable of building, auto maintenance, and gardening than most people I know - yet he is not as competent as his father and grandfather were. People have been lured by convenience to lose a lot of skills that would normally help them survive.