That he says it in the question is his real answer. The "Indeed not", is politics. There is an "astonishing instinct", understood in the poetry of Poe, the goth style of some modern young American's, claimed among Formula One drivers, and distilled to cultural essence there in those Arabs who love "self-martyrdom" -- suicide. How wise can the old man be if he continues to ignore it, or rather how attached is he to his intellectual vanities?