"Every man is an island; each man to his function, his private contract with God. This is the realization of the Gita’s selfless action. This is caste. In the beginning a no doubt useful division of labor in a rural society, it has now divorced function from social obligation, position from duties. It is inefficient and destructive; it has created a psychology which will frustrate all improving plans. It has led to an Indian passion for speech-making and for symbolic action."
V. S Naipaul "An Area of Darkness" 1964
“Every man is an island; each man to his function, his private contract with God.” Where have we heard this before? No man is an island, and we are all interdependent. Epicurus was, I am convinced, smart enough to observe this and would not have approved of anyone who just shut himself off from life and ignored the world around him totally.