Well, that's certainly the ethos of American modernity -- but there seems (to me, at least) to be little reason to believe that it's actually true. And, even i

Well, that's certainly the ethos of American modernity -- but there seems (to me, at least) to be little reason to believe that it's actually true. And, even if we were to assume the difficult-to-justify proposition that the purpose of life is to be your best self, it's hard to buy that this sort of behavior actually brings you closer to that goal -- any more than the Skoptsy were actually better able to commune with God after castration. (It probably sure felt like it worked at the time, though.)