While his desire is to control the consciousnesses of others, he does not necessarily resort to physical force, even
when opportunities exist. Manipulation, trickery, and deceit are often chosen by him, not as adjuncts to coercion,
but as preferred alternatives. There are several reasons for this. First, not all men of this type have the "stomach"
for physical violence: they cannot bear the vision of themselves resorting to such means. Second, devices such as
manipulation and deceit do not ordinarily entail the physical risks and dangers inherent in the use of violence.
Third, to some Power-seekers, these nonviolent devices represent a superior form of efficacy, a more "intellectual"
form, so to speak. But what must be recognized is that these devices spring from the same root as the impulse to
violence: the desire to bypass and overcome the voluntary judgment of others, to affect others through the
imposition of one's own will, against their desires, knowledge, and interests—to gain a sense of triumph by
cheating reason and reality. The desire to manipulate other men is the desire to manipulate reality and to make one's
wishes omnipotent.
Consider, now, the psychology of the Spiritual social metaphysician. This type does not seek to please and placate
people in the manner of a Conventional social metaphysician, or to gain power over them like a Power-seeker. This
type often does virtually nothing at all. His chief virtue, he proclaims or implies, is that he is too good for this
world. He must not be expected to confirm to conventional standards. He must not be expected to achieve anything
tangible. His friends and acquaintances must love and respect him, not for anything he does—doing is so vulgar—
but for what he is. What is he? Not everything can be communicated, after all. Some things—the important
things—can only be felt.
To put it another way: the Spiritual social metaphysician's claim to esteem rests on his alleged possession of a
superior kind of soul—a soul that is not his mind, not his thoughts, not his values, not anything specifiable, but an
ineffable composite of undefinable longings, incommunicable insights, and impenetrable mystery.
So long as the influence of mysticism falls as a shadow across our culture, this sort of "solution" to the problem of
self-esteem will attract a certain number of social metaphysicians. It spares them the necessity of effort or struggle
(except, of course, the