I was thinking…
About what it means to be extreme, and how that changes from time to time.
For example, traditionally the Aghora sect of Hinduism has, at least in part, at least according to my understanding, embraced practices that would seem extreme to non-Aghori Hindus.
Or just about anybody else. Meditating in graveyards, maybe on corpses, inviting a relationship with what others would shun, in order to arrive at acceptance of, and relationship with, Reality. They had no use for the dogma of the elite—nor the snootiness that often accompanied. In going against the momentum of mediocrity, they attempted to engage in living alchemy and embrace Reality. Of course, there are other examples of individuals preferring to live according to a Truth that landed them in trouble with the presiding ruling class or Powers that Be (or Were). Saint Francis. Jesus. Guru Arjun Dev. Boston Tea Party. You get the idea.
It has occurred to me that, today, going against the tide would have to look very different from how it would have had to look a century ago. Or even quarter of a century. These days extreme is the soup du jour. From Fear Factor to Extreme Makeover to people You Tubing your latest stunts (“this is me launching myself into a brick wall,” etc.), to photos of naked musicians covered in blood adorning popular magazines, to speeding up football (which is kind of cool, actually…see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/magazine/05Football-t.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a210) it is hard to think of what it would be that modern society would shun as too extreme.
What would be the most extreme thing we could do now? What would out-extreme extreme? The thing we could do that would establish us as serious swimmers against the tide, as shaking off the status quo and becoming situated in our selves?
How about this? Slow down. Surrender ambition. Stop.
ooh! ooh! pick me! pick me! i know this one!
you're conclusion is absolutely right. i've been living the answer to this one for a number of years now. today we live in a world in which everything and everybody just "has to be" EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME!!!!! to be "valid." why? because it's all empty, senseless form with no substance, so the form has to be EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME!!!!! or else nobody in their right mind would pay any attention to it (and, ironically enough, it takes you being totally whacked out of your right mind to pay any attention to anything EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME!!!!! in the first place). the common consciousness and the cultural manifestations that have resulted from it have strayed so far from truth and reality and so far into the falseness of The Illusion, that everything has to be EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME!!!!! to be expressed because it's so much of abso-flipflapping-lutely nothing.
you're right. plain-ordinary-simple-calm-quiet-content-humble-harmless is the new EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME!!!!!
Thanks for chiming in….:)