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"I WISH TO make an extreme statement," forcefully uttered Henry David Thoreau, "if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you."

What did Thoreau mean by "an extreme statement"? What is the meaning - generally -- of "extremism"?

There are two contradictory approaches to life: extremism and moderation. To be extreme is to go "all the way." Extremists are often called rash and foolish. "For fools rush in," declared Pope, "where angels fear to tread." Moderates "stop" at some "median point," and, like Thoreau's "champions of civilization," often plead for the synonymous virtues of prudence and compromise.

In his famous promulgation of the Golden Mean, Aristotle attacked extremism. He advocated the "middle path." For instance, he stated, "too much" spending is extravagance; "too little" is stinginess. "It is best," summarized the philosopher, "to rise from life as from a banquet) neither thirsty nor drunken."

The Golden Mean supporters have "substantiated" their position by numerous quotations. "Avoid extremes," cautioned Pope. "In everything," stated Plautus, "the middle course is best; all things in excess bring trouble." "There is a mean in everything," declared Horace; "even virtue itself has its stated limits." "All extremes are error…" preached Cecil; "truth lies between these extremes." "To go beyond the bounds of moderation," concluded the shocked Pascal, "is to outrage humanity. ...So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its limits, it really consists in keeping within them."

Directly attacking the moderates, Thoreau passionately wrote:

"If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the results were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity with higher principles."

What constitutes an extremist?

An extremist is one who accepts the full value of life, and refuses to be "shortchanged." Said Thomas Paine: "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in principle is always a vice."

An extremist never stops midway. He leaps forward until he reaches the end -- and, in true fashion, often plunges beyond the end itself. A moderate stops at a "cautious" point, and never sees the end for the middle.

An extremist swims ashore from a sinking ship. A moderate makes a delicious meal for the sharks.

An extremist scans Eternity with the 20/20 vision of Absolute Truth. A moderate near-sightedly never envisions more than 50%.

An extremist often exaggerates, and "hitches his wagon," as Emerson advised, "to a star": a star of actual reality; a bright star of "Ought-to-Be." A moderate lives "temporarily" forever in a horrible, factual dimness on the planet "Is."

Exaggeration is man's attempt to bridge the scan between dreary factuality and dreamy actuality.

Is not love always (note the extreme word!) an exaggeration? What fool loves moderately? To love well is to be a perfect fool. One loves not only forever, but forever and a day!

Thus, the lover partakes with other great fanatics in extremism.

Sang Shakespeare:

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact . . .

Swore Burns:

And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry . . .

Protested Catullus:

"How many kisses/' so you sigh, "Will make you cease from asking more?"

How many stars are in the sky? How many sands are on the shore? Let us thank the gods for exaggeration and extremism. Life, love, and lunacy would be unbearable without the magnificent poetry of anti-moderation.

Reality, of necessity, is unattainable and eternal. What passes for reality is an apparent "solidity," which, upon close examination, turns out to be only a "puff," a transitory transparency, a mirage of shifting clouds that change and vanish even as one attempts to photograph them with the lens of a "precise," "scientific," and "statistical" mind.

Only an extremist knows the truth about the "essence" of life. A moderate can never stand back far enough away to perceive life at a glance.

An extremist never stops his search for Perfection; having "achieved" it, he never rests content until Perfection itself lies beneath him like the clouds over which his Soul-jet roars and vanishes in its eternal quest for still higher super-Perfections.

An extremist never stops until he flings forth the reel of his dreams, and captures heaven with the hook. Only when reality becomes cloaked in dreams will the dreams themselves become reality. Only then will the Absolute be achieved -- and exaggeration proven to be 100% (nay, 101%) reality; and moderation proven to be but 50% pregnancy; and extremism proven to be ALL Truth.

I call upon all men of extreme will -- all lunatics, lovers, and liars -- to repeat after me Thoreau's celebrated pledge:

"I desire to speak somewhere without bounds; like a man in a waking moment, to men in their waking moments; for I am convinced that I cannot exaggerate enough even to lay the foundation of a true expression. Who that has heard a strain of music feared then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever?"