It is how we go about our relationship with matter that defines the quality of our Western lives, not that we have such a relationship.

A single atom is an inscrutable universe of unknowns, despite all of our progress. High-energy physics has only scratched the surface of this mystery, and everything we have learned thus far has been an endless series of counterintuitive surprises.

individualism does not, by itself, contradict compassion; and neither is it synonymous with self-absorption. On the contrary: individualism allows compassion and social engagement to expand well beyond the confining boundaries of tribes. Moreover, often what makes strong social safety nets—the ultimate in compassion and engagement—possible is the e

Individual freedom is the quintessential Western value: the freedom to live and express ourselves as nature wants to live and express itself through us, uniquely, provided only that we do not interfere with the freedom of others to do the same.

I followed my path, not that of compliance. And I did so not because I chose to, but because my path chose me. This is how the Western mind operates, even when it is forced to compromise somewhat to secure its own subsistence.

Jung didn’t actually choose psychiatry; psychiatry chose him. Psychiatry is what nature wanted to do through Jung and resisting the power of nature is a tall task. We, Westerners, are often helpless in the face of nature’s unique vision for us. Yet, this is precisely what makes us valuable, unique individuals.

Spinoza thus gave up everything to remain true to his individual vision; so much so that, in his latest biography, Ian Buruma speaks of his “total commitment to individual autonomy and freedom” (Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, 2024).

Steve Jobs didn’t have a unique vision; his unique vision had him. He was tossed around by the force of what nature was trying to accomplish through him in a manner that very few can plausibly hope to control.

As a true Western individual, he then figured that it wasn’t Steve Jobs that needed to conform to the world, but the world that had to receive Steve Jobs’s vision. And the vision trying to express itself through him was as divorced from social expectations as it was overwhelming.