The experiences of Serious Fun campers and their carers suggest that challenging events in a Rite of Passage structure are salutogenic when monitored by exemplary Masters of Ceremonies. Serious Fun camps are modern institutions that have a social structure in common with ancient rites of passage. The quiet desperation of social suffering persists despite proffered remedies of mindfulness, resilience and equality. In 2017, the seventh international conference on the Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization was held in Frankfort to explore the nature of social suffering in an era of resilience. Salutogenesis is about the generation of health and includes both physical and social health, but it is primarily social as ‘the pursuit of health and happiness is guided by urges that are social rather than biological’. Rites of passage govern social change by acknowledging elevation of social status or resisting change by the ridicule of social reversal.