ABSTRACT
Tact and tactic can peacefully coexist in the idealized persona of the well-adjusted modern person so long as the idealization is not scrutinized. All that is required is a modest rationale, one that serves best when it is implicitly elevated to a vague maxim for living. The modest rationale is that people should be treated in the manner they present. Openness for openness, warmth for warmth; unguardedness for naivete. So it follows also: cleverness should be met with cleverness, scheming with still better schemes, and force with force, to be sure. The simultaneous attraction to and discomfort with the manipulative orientation toward others cannot be balanced with a simple rule. It is a point of departure for this book to see these dual values as an ambivalence that is inherent in the modern condition. It is a dilemma both felt and reflected in personality and society, and its presence on each dimension perpetuates its display in the other.
