Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment

“Peter Viereck, in a work on the intersection of history and literature, offers a critique of the American desire for normalcy that leads to a culture of the surrender of personality. In contrast to this voluntary thought control process is the unadjusted person. Cast in the mold of great individualists from Thomas More to Friedrich Nietzsche, such a person responds to fundamental values of conscience rather than conformity built exclusively on ego gratification and icon worship.” Viereck’s book is a critique of the liberal presumption of a monopoly in critical thought.