The Man in the Middle

A great theological scholar and leader of men once enunciated a universal truth. Not having heard it directly from him, I cannot know if he meant it as a guiding principle in life or if it was an offhand remark. He was, presumably, addressing an issue of either religious devotion or social behavior. This is what he said:

"Everyone thinks he's in the middle."

When I first heard it, it struck me as merely insightful, but on further reflection and after mulling it over a while, I came to regard it as one of the truest, most universally applicable principles ever uttered. It covers a world of disciplines; mental health, criminality, religiosity, humanity, social interaction to name but a few.

No two people think exactly alike so society has, over the years, had to define acceptable and unacceptable in human interactions. What divides "normal" from really "crazy?"

People have an endless capacity for rationalizing their actions. A petty thief can point to Bernie Madoff as a real thief and to honest people as preachers' sons. A whirling dervish in the sands of Sudan can look at Al Qaida or the Ikwan as really extreme and at the Lebanese as functinoally infidels. The term "lunatic fringe" has been applied to organizations of which I am or have been a member but I can point to many other groups that are way more lunatic than mine. The list goes on. Possibly, Bernie Madoff can point to others in history that caused, qualitatively, more damage than he did.

Standards of morality, standards of honesty, standards of piety, standards of ethics, all cover a very broad range. Society has developed yardsticks for truly extreme behavior and most people will subscribe to this benchmark. But the guy out on the edge doesn't really think he's there. He's the man in the middle.

I'm constantly reminded that people see themselves in a mirror of their own making. You wouldn't recognize the person I think I am or the person you think you are if you ever met up with him/her.

The extreme person you see when you meet me is only a figment of your distorted imagination. The same one that imagines yourself as the soul of moderation.

We're all in the middle.