Well, if I'm only a result of past causes, then I'm a victim of those past causes. There is no deeper meaning behind things that gives me a reason to be here.

My goal is to create a therapy of ideas, to try to bring in new ideas so that we can see the same old problems differently.

I don't think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person.

We approach people the same way we approach our cars. We take the poor kid to a doctor and ask, "What's wrong with him, how much will it cost, and when can I pick him up?"

Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don't want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure.

Tell me what you yearn for and I shall tell you who you are. We are what we reach for, the idealized image that drives our wandering.

I'm the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I'm a victim again. A result.