He has given up running for anything. In those days, people said, 'Maybe he's got a shot. Truth must be discovered as you go along. Even God doesn't know how it's going to turn out. As Mailer sees it, good is instinct, passion, creativity, improvisation.
Evil is habit, conformity, repression, sterility.
Mailer believes we live in evil times. Corporations grow like cancer. Computers soften the muscles. Ugly buildings scar the skies. We fear death so badly we've let our very souls become climate controlled.