“Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)

However, I'd add an important corollary, and one that is perhaps a bit less cynical :). Even if it's mostly true that you can only feel fulfilled when your actions and opinions are approved by your peers, you still get to chose who your peers are, and whose opinion you value. That's true today more than ever, with the world's interconnectedness and the huge diversity of on- and offline communities.

Near the end of the article, Mark Twain says "Men think they think upon great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently." If you take the time to choose the parties/communities you align yourself with carefully, you can live a very principled and self-determined life even accepting the inevitability of some degree of group conformity.

You have All The Money, and All The Respect amongst your large and powerful peer group. Given your considerable wealth, there's nothing anybody can do to negatively impact your life in any meaningful way. Yet you continue to bang the same drum you've been banging for a decade now, at least.

Time to tell us something we don't already know.

I must not have been paying attention. When did that ever happen?