Diagram 119

Re Talk: 269

     There are benefits to operating at the extremes of life: the binary battlefield. Advantages to escaping 'no man's land'--the middle ground of uncertainty, ambivalence and ambiguity. Example of operating at the extremes: either total denial of any responsibility for any given deed (even while your hand's caught in the cookie jar!), or total acceptance, even bravado concerning responsibility for the deed. This operation transcends and/or eliminates further possible action in the battlefield. The extreme position is a utilizing of 'lying'--extraordinary lying vs. ordinary lying (the lying that Life makes everyone commit--such as assuming willful participation in events and then talking about it). The norm is no-man's-land where everybody belongs. The extremes are seen by the middle grounders as dangerous; requiring treatment, redress, normalization, rehabilitation; ill, pathological. But it is the middle ground that is most dangerous to the Real Revolutionist. It is the place surrounded by enemy trenches and vulnerable to attack from every direction. Thus the Real Revolutionist willfully chooses the trenches (either is about equal) in order to minimize his exposure. The Real Revolutionist must be able to declare, for instance, either total belief or disbelief in say, accidents or fate--period, while still appearing normal, more or less benign. Notice that the more extreme the appearance of the trappings of a given organization (e.g., the catholic church--robes, pointy shoes, etc), the more conservative it is in reality; the more predictable, staid. Also, the converse applies: radical activity appearing in the guise of normality.TK notes 269