Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Extremists

I don't know how it is, but I can breathe easily when there are rooms for extreme people.

Extremity is an art, and requires a certain level of intellect. I really enjoy a conversation when there is somebody in the party who has eccentric views on, for example, the second law of thermodynamics, or the collapse of wave function in quantum mechanics.

Most scientists take a mild attitude towards these venerable enigmas, saying that as far as they can calculate things for all practical purposes (FAPP), they don't care. Those conservative people, although they are certainly the main stream in the academics, do not really interest me. Because they don't make the air lighter.

Being an extremist is not easy nowadays, when the society becomes increasingly practical. It is well advised to keep a sensible day job, while you maintain the extremist's activities at night.

It fills me with indescribable joys to think that there are still extremists around.

1 comment:

Utako said...

People who shoot a hole through society appear as various figures. We often avoid extremists because they upset our familiar thoughts and make us uneasy.

The essay "Philosophy and Fashion show" is very interesting. You say the first scene that a tie appeared must be very strange. Because a great man hung a fluttering thing from his neck. Nietzsche who said God had died is accepted now, but he lived at the risk of his mind in those days...