that is tied to and dependent on the responses of the "significant others"; (e) a tragic or malevolent sense of life, a
belief that the universe is essentially inimical to one's interests. (This last symptom is not restricted exclusively to
social metaphysicians.)
The most fundamental of these traits, the one that makes all the others inevitable, is: the absence of a firm,
independent sense of objective reality.
This is the vacuum that is filled by the consciousnesses of others—and this is the void that is responsible for that
desolate feeling of alienation which is every social metaphysician's chronic torture.
It is important to observe that the experience of self-alienation and the feeling of being alienated from reality, from
the world around one, proceed from the same cause: one's default on the responsibility of thinking. The suspension
of proper cognitive contact with reality and the suspension of one's ego are a single act. A flight from reality is a
flight from self.
Since social metaphysics represents a flight from the responsibility of independent judgment (particularly in the
realm of values), and represents an attempt to live through and by others—the most common and easily identifiable
type of social metaphysician is the person whose values and view of life are a direct reflection and product of his
particular culture or subculture. This is the person who, today, is sometimes described as a "conformist." I shall
designate this type as the Conventional social metaphysician.
This is the person who accepts the world and its prevailing values ready-made; his is not to reason why. What is
true? What others say is true. What is right? What others believe is right. How should one live? As others live. Why
does one work for a living? Because one is supposed to. Why does one get married? Because one is supposed to.
Why does one have children? Because one is supposed to. Why does one go to church? Oh, please don't start
discussing religion, you might offend someone.
This is George F. Babbitt, this is Peter Keating, this is the Organization Man. This is the person for whom reality
"is" the world as interpreted by the "significant others" of his social environment—the person whose sense of
identity and personal worth is explicitly a function of his ability to satisfy the values, terms, and expectations of
those omniscient and omnipresent "others." I am "as you desire