PROTEAN MAN
27
of "experiential transcendence" - of seeking a sense of immortality
in
the way that mystics always have, through psychic experience of
such great intensity that time and death are, in effect, eliminated.
This, I believe, is the larger meaning of the "drug revolution," of
protean man's hunger for chemical aids to "expanded consciousness."
And indeed all revolutions may be thought of, at bottom, as innova–
tions in the struggle for immortality, as new combinations of old
modes.
We have seen that young adults individually, and youth move–
ments collectively, express most vividly the psychological themes of
protean man. And although it is true that these themes make contact
with what we sometimes call the "psychology of adolescence," we err
badly if we overlook their expression in all age groups and dismiss
them as "mere adolescent phenomena." Rather, protean man's af–
finity for the young - his being metaphorically and psychologically
so young in spirit - has to do with his never-ceasing quest for
imagery of rebirth. He seeks such imagery from all sources: from
ideas, techniques, religious and political systems, mass movements and
drugs; or from special individuals of his own kind whom he sees as
possessing that problematic gift of his namesake, the gift of prophecy.
The dangers inherent in the quest seem hardly to require emphasis.
What perhaps needs most to be kept in mind is the general principle
that renewal on a large scale is impossible to achieve without forays
into danger, destruction and negativity. The principle of "death and
rebirth" is as valid psychohistorically as it is mythologically. How–
ever misguided many of his forays may be, protean man also carries
with him an extraordinary range of possibility for man's betterment,
or more important, for
his
survival.
