"Man is an end in himself" - Ayn Rand

Bioshock

Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.

- Ayn Rand

Unfair Monkey Experiment

Contemporary Spirituality is "faith-lite"

In short, spirituality is ‘faith-lite.’ Whereas religion (or Kierkegaard’s ‘leap of faith’) makes heavy demands on practitioners to adjust their thinking, feeling, and acting to fit with what’s been revealed according to the tradition, spirituality doesn’t make such demands, and it thereby makes us stupid or at least intellectually lazy. It also makes us selfish … 

”Spirituality doesn’t face the fear and loathing of existence, the abyss. Instead, it covers over the abyss with easy answers about an immortal soul or about happiness coming from within. When happiness comes from within, you don’t have to worry about the countless others outside of your spiritual bubble who are far from happy. Thus privatized, happiness becomes the name for a rather unjust and miserable way to live.”

- David Webster, Dispirited: How Contemporary Spirituality Makes Us Stupid, Selfish and Unhappy

Ouch.

Mad Men - Opening Sequence

"Advertising is based on one thing : Happiness" 

"You're born alone, you die alone, and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one."

- Don Draper

Existensial Panda in Seoul