By the time the leveling (or dissipation) of values occurs, the psyche is already so far gone that it feels more like salvation or relief than something "subversive and intolerable". From that "leveled standpoint", altruism is not only as arbitrary as malignant narcissism, but it looks like a form of narcissism itself. After all, people are altruistic because, in the end, it makes them feel good about themselves. That's also why, despite its vast history, altruism was never able to solve anything substantial. Sometimes the most "altruistic" thing to do is to say "no" or enter into a conflict.
There are as many "paths to India" as there are people. So nihilism in itself is not a problem if carried to its natural conclusion (i.e. it does not matter that nothing matters). The problem is that it can literally kill the seeker because the despair before "arriving" (or finding the "immovable point of reference") is real and utterly devastating. That being said, nihilism in one way or another is encountered no matter the path, because the socio-biological illusions (conditioning) must be stripped in any case.
As for Eastern traditions -- according to the lore, Buddha rejected asceticism and went for the "middle path" even though he remained a monk. Then again, he always had the plan B available (he had a comfy kingdom to return to and already had a wife and a son). I'm more in favor of "householder type” of enlightenment.
I looked into that Kronman's book but it's quite a hefty tome. The problem I see with incorporating late-modern philosophy into enlightenment for late-modern milieu is that it presents only the final insights (with various degrees of factual precision). In my experience, no rational reason is strong enough to completely convince a person to act in a certain (lets say moral) way. After all, that's what it all boils down to. One has to have a direct insight into the "workings" of reality. Then there's also no problem to incorporate even the death-of-(church)God or hard-core materialism into the overall picture. As I said many times before, the key is to know firsthand that which "I am" points at.
