dreadful struggle to preserve this fraud in their own eyes). They know that the inferiority feelings of their fellow
social metaphysicians offer them a "market" for their Spiritual role.
The "market" is a limited one, however; and it is distressingly unpredictable. The Spiritual type has an answer to
this, i.e., he has his rationalization ready. If and when he fails to receive the acceptance and esteem he craves, he
explains to himself that people are not fine enough to appreciate the "real" him. He may even prefer to be alone, to
avoid people—the better to dream, undisturbed and unchallenged, about how he would be admired and loved if
only people knew what he was "really" like, deep inside. (It should be added that there are moments when the
thought of people knowing what he is really like fills him with terror.) An overactive fantasy-life is often
characteristic of this type: he sees himself as a religious saint, or an inspired statesman, or a renowned poet, or
(forgetting that he is supposed to be spiritual) a sexually irresistible Don Juan.
The extreme case of this mentality, carried to the edge of psychosis (and sometimes beyond), is a subtype which
may be designated as the Religious fanatic social metaphysician. This type of person can disassociate himself from
the human race altogether, he may become a hermit or anchorite—with God as his "significant other," as the object
of his social metaphysical attachment. Having despaired of impressing his fellow men, it is God whom he seeks to
impress. Since God cannot frown at him, or snub him socially, or inquire as to why he doesn't get a job, the
Religious fanatic type is free to imagine that God is smiling down at him, blessing and protecting him, responding
to the true nobility of his soul, which everyone on earth is too superficial or corrupt to do.
Then there is the Independent social metaphysician. This is the counterfeit individualist, the man who rebels against
the status quo for the sake of being rebellious, the man whose pseudo-self-esteem is tied to the picture of himself as
a defiant nonconformist.
This is the "rebel" who fulfills his concept of profundity and self-expression by proclaiming regularly that
"Everything stinks." This is the nihilist, this is the hippie, this is the nonobjective "artist," this is the "individualist"
who proves it by scorning money, marriage, jobs, baths, and haircuts. This is the son who leaves