We (i.e. the 60s generation) were smart enough to recognise the limits of intellect, and that we were not going to find "the meaning of life" or some such via college degrees. We might well have been the first generation--for purely historical reasons--in a position to appreciate the existential crisis that follows from this realisation. This is quite sophisticated philosophy.

M exploited this brilliantly, riding on the intellectual sophistication--that he didn't understand--and presenting himself as the missing piece of the jigsaw. He thus had instant credibility. For many of us M slotted straight into a existing conceptual gap. We didn't get as far as the next intellectual step, recognising the dangers M represented, because by then we'd literally lost our minds.

Neville B