Do you think there is an real lack of world- and life-affirmation amongst Western culture?

I think Western culture (defined as the culture surrounding the philosophical traditions of humanism and the Enlightenment) is less concerned with “life-affirmation” and more concerned with quality of life and the avoidance of suffering.

The idea of “serving one’s fellows” is a double-edged sword. It exists both in Western, individualistic democracies and in totalitarian theocracies.

Indeed, & in many ways.

For instance, the pull-self-up-by-bootstraps philosophy (which, as someone aptly stated, ignores how some people’s boostraps are a mile long, and others a centimeteer) tends to at least gloss over what happens to people when they’re left to fend for themselves – in competition with those with way more might… poverty, very limited or even stunted life chances, nevermind ability to self-actualize.

Not sure if it’s extreme in Western as opposed to other similar cultures (eg. large scale industrial nation-states), but the power in the hands of Westerners (relative to other parts of the world) makes this more vital to deal with…

… especially since we are members of this culture (thus intimately familiar with it) and a society where it’s predominant (thus having a decent amount of influence over it, relative to others).

Not really. People today expect life to provide these things, they’re brought up to expect life affirmation to come to them. The only real way to gain life affirmation is to work for it and to achieve it.
There is nothing life-affirming about someone handing you a prize because you happen to be the warm body standing there at a particular time.

@craig_holm World- and life-affirmation has to do with someone convincing you that all you seek to do and be in the world is entirely possible, and that the world is not a cruel, uncompassionate place.