Independence created by philosophical insight is the mark of distinction between a mere artisan and a real seeker after truth.

Believe this if you would prefer, but average people are exactly alike to most q uantum physicists. Let me explain what I mean. Quantum theory, which investigate s matters tiniest components, along with their possibly dual-flowing conceptions of time, forces otherwise perfectly logical lab coat geniuses into a murky realm governed by quixotic mechanisms, where flavored quarks mate with greenish gluon s the way Id imagine a bumblebee might attempt to impregnate a hummingbird. From this Plank-sized bowl of sub-atomic Campbells, rational scientists must discern h ow exactly the real world is supposed to jive with a troupe of tuxedoed neutrino s that always seem to be performing a new, daring magic act, depending upon whet her or not there is a critic in the audience. If good girls really go to heaven and bad girls hopefully go everywhere, then when Harry Houdini kicked, it is hig hly probable that he bought an old theater somewhere down-spin of a hydrogen pro ton; and most likely, Salvador Dali showed up at that theater on opening night, a few weeks earlier, to hatch from within a melting golden oval. Anything goes i n the vast space between atoms. This is the kind of crazy shit that professional s are expected to deal with down there and the spookiness of it all leads some f olks to legitimately wonder if intention really can alter reality. If you think it through, maybe magicians and artists are better equipped to handle this job t han most physicists. Irregardless, as it now seems perfectly acceptable to say, the point is that liv ing in our time scale is very much like the chaos found beneath the scanning ele ctron microscope. And so are the common methods used to maybe discover the meani ng of it all. As we struggle to figure out this maze, most can only afford to wo rk strictly with what they hope to be fact. Consequently, the complexities of li fe must be boiled down to their most base forms: You versus I, evidence over int uition, left against right, Liberal or Conservative, forever begrudgingly choosi ng amongst the lesser of two evils. In this mind-set what you see is what you ge t: be it suffering, injustice, inequality or exceptionalismwhat you are becomes w ho you are. No matter what the philosophical implications of our solutions might be, action must come from the most pragmatic decisions. A concrete reality whe re A plus B must and will always equal Three. According to Albert Einstein, whose quote tops this piece and was awarded his on ly Noble Prize in Quantum theory, not for his far more famous works on Relativit y theory, this is an unfortunate way to approach the world. When Einstein penned the aforementioned quote it was within a greater letter to his colleagues, many of who were growing increasingly resistant to allowing esoteric thought of any kind to infect their sterilized laboratories. They could not, as Einstein did, d aydream their work into existence, as much as hed wished they would try. Beyond the revolving study of protons and planets, gazing through this alternate point of view, are people who believe evil to be neither great nor lesser, and who believe choosing evil to be an act of unconscionable self-treason. It is not because these people are nave, which is just too easy a label to apply to a thou ghtful mind, or that they do not understand the way things are. It is because they see the world from a different perspective, where the known quantities so benev olently presented to us are simply unacceptable. Oftentimes, lifes larger questio ns require bolder solutions--ingenuitive ideas that bear the mark of the real se ekers after truth. For to those too few real seekers among us, the person you ar e is actually the person whom you have become. Truth is, the world changes all the time and l revolutionary band of outlaw dreamers. But experience is as cyclical as it is thematic. fortable with idling by, doing the best they And this is for the best. What would happen yes, sometimes, it is due to a smal most often is it because the human There will always be a majority com can within the circumstances given. if every wing nut cried for bloody

revolt every time they didnt get what they wanted? Wed all be Republicans. The Truth will always be funny. Seriously, though, the dreamers and the philosophizers and the revolutionaries a nd the Peaceniks all do serve a critical function within our civilization. They are the ones who beckon us to, if only for the briefest moments, see through the ir passion what humanities future may hold. Mostly, the average person will never bother to understand the seekers or wonder what life is like in their own personal utopias, but I have to wonder, especial ly from those who label themselves as social progressivesif not some kind of shared utopia, superior to the limits we are currently forced to accept, then exactly what kind of progress are you hoping to achieve? If the answer quickly eludes yo u, or is simply no better than I want to Win!, then you might do well by brushing up on how the greatest mind of our era went about achieving so many of its own im aginary dreams.