The Middle Path

Fedor was dizzy. So many things were happening all around and inside him he felt as though he might explode. Luckily he didn’t. On the surface things were quite still really but Fedor looked beyond the surface. Every cell in his body fulfilled hundreds of functions that somehow made Fedor conscious. A man in Brussels hauled away garbage. A woman in Chicago drove a bus. A teenager in Munich served tea. Billions of people woke up this morning and somehow they kick-started a functional world.

Thought, tea, steam, cogs, clarity.

“The world is horribly dark, terrible place; but at the same time a breathtakingly beautiful, delightful one. Those who view the world at either extreme are either ignorant or extremely bold, and quite possibly both.” began Fedor, lost in thought as he so often was. Most live their lives somewhere in-between, as Fedor did. “Yes, the in-between, the middle path is where most people live in every respect to everything, too scared to take a stand on anything. Or are they simply wise enough to realize that they cannot possibly have a stance on anything because they know so very little about everything? Opinionated individuals at least have purpose and direction; they get things done, however wrong or ignorant they might be. I have done nothing, maybe I will never do anything. But if I do anything at all it is bound to be wrong, that is a law of nature; everything that has been done or will be done was and will be wrong. This is because any decision or opinion is either completely wrong and false or partly wrong. Supreme knowledge is necessary to make a decision with complete confidence in its correctness. For that reason, those that hold strong opinions with complete confidence are fools. Though everyone is a fool in everything they do or think, it stands to reason that there is one person who is least wrong in every particular opinion or decision; that person alone should act.” Fedor thought as he finally arrived at a conclusive clause. Finally arriving at something in such a chaotic world was a delightful surprise. Quickly, he wrote his conclusion on a scrap of paper. Just as quickly he crumpled the paper and disposed of it because ideas are much more elegant in thought than they are in text.

After the incident with the scrap of paper Fedor jumped at a realization: ideas are fine and clean but clarification must be put forth for application in reality. A thinking man must both romantically philosophize and logistically reason. Abstract, beautiful thoughts as well as systematic, detailed theories are both necessary and valuable to a rounded thinker. With that in mind Fedor took a stab at systematizing.  

The biological machinery packed tightly into Fedor’s skull shook and wheezed into life: shaking off the residue of the absurd unconscious world and Fedor began to think, as he so often did, for Fedor was a clever man.

“The logistics of this action taking strategy are nightmarish. To simplify and apply to reality, in every situation where an opinion must be had or a decision must be made the group at hand needs only to decide the person who is least wrong. The least wrong individual can be defined as the person who is most knowledgeable about the situation at hand and all the possible consequences of action. The care taken in finding the least wrong individual must be directly proportional to the importance of the situation, that is, the more important the situation or issue, the more care must be taken in finding the least wrong individual. To make matters more complex, in a situation requiring an opinion or decision limited by time, the group (or individual) must find the least wrong individual with the most care, within a reasonable amount of time. Quantifying each variable numerically and creating an equation to render the most perfect, least wrong individual to take action is possible, however it is bound to be inaccurate, difficult, and rather time consuming. Rather, we must internally judge these factors and make our best guess.

If an decision or opinion must be taken right away and you are the only person available, your knowledge of the situation will have to suffice. If an action requires doing in the near future, there is time enough to seek out a more knowledgeable and less wrong person.”

This was the Theory of Opinion silently written in Fedor’s mind.

Feeling the weight of such a heavy, verbose thought our main character fell into a deep, satisfying unconsciousness once again. Reality no longer ruled Fedor’s mind and strangeness consumed him.