fringes of society. But in a culture such as ours, the pressure resulting from the intellectual vacuum can fling them
up from their cellars to the pinnacles of prestige, in an extended ''Fools' Day" orgy. Then one sees the triumphant
spread of pretentiously eccentric mediocrity, one sees the drunken glorification of unconsciousness; one sees
unintelligible splashes of paint, representing nothing, displayed on the walls of famous museums; one seeks
unkempt young men, in denims and T-shirts, lecturing on Zen Buddhism in distinguished universities; one sees
whims for the sake of whims, absurdity for the sake of absurdity, destruction for the sake of destruction, becoming
fashionable.
When and to the extent that this occurs, the Independent social metaphysicians involved may react in one of several
ways. They may switch to the role of Conventional social metaphysicians, eager to be respectable conformists
within the context of their newly established subculture, and may then proceed to sneer at all those who do not
"belong." Or: They may switch to the psychology of the open Power-seekers, struggling to be accepted as leaders
of the new elite, scheming and manipulating in order to protect their positions, trembling lest their status be usurped
by more effective or aggressive rivals. Or: Feeling too insecure to strive for any fixed position within any
subculture, they may abandon the system or movement that they themselves helped to launch, and adopt some new
posture that will guarantee their role as outcasts, so that they will never have to endure the anticipatory panic of
possible rejection.
There is, finally, a type of social metaphysician that differs in important respects from all the foregoing varieties I
have described. I call this type: the Ambivalent social metaphysician.
This is the person who, notwithstanding a major psycho-epistemological surrender to the authority of others, has
still preserved a significant degree of intellectual sovereignty. While no one, not even the most abject conformist,
can renounce his mind completely, the Ambivalent type retains a far greater measure of authentic independence
than any other species of social metaphysician.
His intellectual self-abdication is far more limited; it tends to center on that most sensitive area in which all social
metaphysicians are especially vulnerable: the realm of values.