“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
It is with this clause that Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities starts. It’s an iconic sentence, and the paragraph to which it belongs, is no less iconic.
Though The Tale belongs to the time of French Revolution, as back as 1789, there is something about this sentence and paragraph which holds true even today, and will continue to hold true for a long time to come. The surprising thing about the world is that two extremes often exist in the same Overton Window, and one is often aware of only one at a time. Like a wavelength existing half the time above the axis and half the time below it, our observations also move in waves. But those waves are not always so regular – for some of us, we keep looking at things below the axis for most of the time, and for others, vice versa, and for still others, perspectives keep changing.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Black and White, both colours exist simultaneously. The Universe is still expanding, and that is splendid. But the Universe might “crunch” one day, and that is frightening. But the Universe might come into existence again and expand, and that is splendid.
One moment you feel humanity is shifting to spirituality, having realised that a life of atheism lacks the most essential purpose, and that will make it more virtuous; but at the same time, you feel that new wars and crises still arise on daily basis, and force in the world still continues to exist despite centuries of destruction. One world, two extremes, existing in harmony, as if.
On one hand, you see Elon Musk and his great ideas of settling on Mars, and you get goosebumps at the imagination of a future that looks like “Future”. On the other hand, you see things like America’s decisions being affected by businessmen, prolonging wars to earn economic gains, and you are caused to bite your lip.
While this binary classification has a bit of fallacy, the general idea is that it is possible for two extremes, two superlatives to be on one wall together.
But this has been forever and will be forever. It seems to be the way of the world. The “best of times” and the “worst of time” will exist alongside.
