For some of the persons who dread intellectual self-reliance, there is still another motive involved. The process of
rational thought and judgment is, necessarily, a process that a man performs alone. Men can learn from one another,
but they cannot share the act of thinking; it is an individual, solitary process, not a social one. There are men who
dread independent thought and judgment precisely for this reason: it makes them aware of their own separateness
as living entities, it makes them aware of the respect in which every man necessarily is an island unto himself; it
makes them aware of the responsibility they must bear for their own existence; it forces them to experience the fact
that they are not and cannot be merely indeterminate constituents of a vast social ooze; it forces them to feel
alienated, cut off, disconnected, rootless and shapeless; it forces them to face their own being and thus to confront
the terror of their own state of nonbeing.
To think, to judge, to choose one's values, is to be individuated, to create a distinct, personal identity. But there are
men who, in their deepest emotions, do not want personal identity—however, much they may scream to their
psychiatrists that they are tormented by a sense of inner emptiness.
This psychology represents the most profound form of rebellion against one's nature as man—more specifically,
against the responsibility of a volitional (self-directed and self-regulating) consciousness—which means: the
attempt to escape the responsibility of being human.
Fear of intellectual independence can exist in various degrees of intensity. What are its consequences when it is the
dominant element in a person's psychology?
There is no escape from the facts of reality, no escape from man's nature or the manner of survival his nature
requires. Every living species that possesses awareness can survive only by the guidance of its consciousness; that
is the role and function of consciousness in a living organism. If (in effect) a person rejects his distinctive form of
consciousness, if he decides that thinking is too much effort and/or that choosing the values needed to guide his
actions is too frightening a responsibility—then, if he wants to survive and to function in the world, he can do so
only by means of the minds of others: by means of their conclusions, their judgments, their values.