He does not tell himself that he is afraid of being ridiculed as an "outsider," or that he abjectly hungers for the
esteem of men he regards as pretentious incompetents. Instead, he tells himself that he is "playing it smart," that
when he becomes famous he will be the term-setter, and that the ''practical" way to become famous, to become a
successful innovator, is to make himself indistinguishable from everyone else.
But he cannot entirely drown the knowledge that this was not the view of science with which he started, and that
the youth who had been himself would find it strange to be told that devotion to truth is expressed by catering to
falsehood. So he retaliates by cursing the malevolence of a universe in which the concept of a "fashionable
innovator" is a contradiction in terms.
Consider, finally, the case of a businessman who recognizes that capitalism is the only rational and just social
system. He knows the intelligence, independence, and dedication which industrial production requires, he knows
that he earns his profits, he loves his work and is secretly proud of it. But he apologizes for his success publicly,
contributes financially to intellectual organizations explicitly devoted to the destruction of businessmen, accepts the
government's expropriation of his wealth and infringement of his rights without moral protest, and begs mankind at
large to forgive him for the sin of possessing ability.
He does not tell himself that he is afraid to challenge the prevailing religion-derived value-system which damns his
way of life as ignoble, selfish, and materialistic, even though that value-system has never made sense to him; he
does not tell himself that he cannot bear to feel alienated from all those who support that value-system; he does not
tell himself that the responsibility of passing independent judgments in the realm of morality fills him with dread.
Instead, he tells himself that his policy is motivated solely by the desire to protect his business interests, that it is
"good sense" not to antagonize government officials, that it is "shrewd public relations" to finance intellectuals of
the statist persuasion, so they will see he is a "nice guy," that it is "bad business" to court unpopularity. His secret
fear takes the form of imagining that the masses are unthinking brutes, that they are the ultimate masters of
reality—they can kill him and take over his property whenever they wish—so they must be placated, they must be
told that he works