many of Thomas M. Disch's writInings, society is shown to be incomprehensibly complicated. Characters are often buffeted by the laws and customs of society that are irrational and ridiculous. In The Businessman, Disch takes the theme of a senseless social order further than in his previous novels. He portrays society as merely providing the illusion of order. In a vast world order, in which human life is part of a hierarchy from insensible stones to a richly complex afterlife, Earthly society is shown to be unable to cope with a universe in which heaven and earth routinely interact.

Agents of society, such as policemen and physicists, insist on explaining supernatural phenomena in Earthly terms while denying the possibility of spiritual influences on events and human behavior.