"If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself."
I kind of like the Yang Gang because Yang is completely sincere about what he preaches.
Usually, 1984 totalitarian dictatorship types are written so that the head is just a power-hungry asshole who snorts cocaine off prostitutes while his people starve, but Yang isn't like that. The ascetic values he imposes on his society are the value he himself embodies. He doesn't amass personal riches or have a luxurious palace. He doesn't maintain control by hating some minority or other. He is completely honest about what he does and what he believes is right, and he has no problem with applying the same standard to himself as to the rest of his society.
Of course, the problem is that Yang is also an almost superhuman genius who isn't lying when he says that pain is just neural input that you decide to do with whatever you will. He really has trained his mind to do that. He just ignores that other people might not have the capacity to reach his level of self control.
I know some "tiger moms" (gross) who would probably pull this shit. "Mrs Yang's son has already train himself to ignore pain as a mere neural input, and here you are complaining about piano practice because of a little carpal tunnel."