I have an article coming out tomorrow on individualism and alienation which might shed some light on this "wetiko illness" of egoism.

My problem with the distinction between health and illness is that it's implicitly teleological. I have no trouble believing that anyone can be deconditioned or deprogrammed, and can learn to interpret the world as a monistic, mystical altruist rather than as a capitalistic drone.

But it would take faith in a metaphysical picture to think that we ought to be one way rather than another. We can assess the advantages and disadvantages of egoism or of what you'd call spiritual health. But it's another thing to say we're meant to do this rather than that.

I think the idea of self-creation or co-creation is interesting, because it speaks to a humbler, aesthetic sensibility. The idea is that the world evolves so we can evolve our ways of being in it. Like species, ways of life come and go. They're not all equally good or bad, but I try to remind myself that it's unlikely anyone appreciates the full existential picture. We can feel enlightened and at peace, but we're still mammals walking upright on one planet out of trillions.