I was under the impression that it was Gladys’ wish to not develop the land. Maybe by “family” you mean the Douglass part of her name, but at least let it be Gladys’. I see a lot of myself in this woman.

I don’t think there’s some inherent “dangerous” level of hedonism. If it was impossible to overdose on heroine, no one would have a problem with it. The human brain can only process so many positive chemicals before it reaches a plateau. We’d have to augment the brain itself to both process more of those chemicals and make it possible for us to perceive those increased chemical loads. It might be a useless endeavor, since peaking and returning to baseline is how human brains are wired, and if we keep raising the baseline and peak capacity, we’re just staying the same, relatively speaking. But will it do harm? Nah.

And remember, different cultures see different things as “degenerate.” There isn’t even consensus among the human species on what is and isn’t socially appropriate. And social rules and tastes shift within cultures overtime. Many would say that maximizing the ability for individual expression should be the goal of humanity. As long as you’re not hurting others, let your freak flag fly.

Being kind and being vulnerable are not the same thing. Sometimes the best kindness is to protect others from someone else’s destruction.

It also doesn’t say that being kind means trying to change someone or giving them the benefit of the doubt.

That’s how I see it, anyway.

Did he fix the mental health care system too?