Bifurcation

One looks at the world and is immediately struck by the image of bifurcation, symmetry, and duality. You see things are set up pretty much with one side balanced by the other. Look at yourself – at your body: you have a right arm and a left arm; you have ears on either side of your head; a left eye and a right eye. Similarly with trees, the moon, birds, crystals, seashells, crosses, the Star of David, pottery, quilts, musical scales, tit for tat, the Golden Rule, etc. etc. In all these cases we broadly see that one side is equal to the other; however, a closer view reveals that, in fact, the two are not equal. In all cases at the macro-level the symmetry is only approximate. Side A is different from side B. Look at your right arm and you will see that it differs in many respects from your left arm. Similarly your right eye from you left; one side of the moon from the other, the top of the quilt from the bottom, etc. etc. Without getting into great detail, which would take us beyond Big Frank’s capabilities, symmetry is exact at the micro level, where quantum mechanics kicks in; it is approximate at the macro level.

What does this mean? It means that at the micro level where there is exact symmetry that those objects, those particles are exact duplicates of each other – and as such are better viewed as waves rather than as particles. Think of the waves of the ocean, or of sound waves and how they duplicate each other. They can do this because, in a sense, they are the same – just in different places. At the macro level there cannot be exact symmetry because the two sides are two not one – as a wave is.

OK, so what does this mean for the proverbial man in the street. Well, that’s what this entry is all about. Note that it is called bifurcation; it is not called symmetry. And. . . the reason for that is that what we think of as symmetry is better expressed as a kind of duality, and forked separation. And here is where Big Frank strikes out on his own. He thinks that because of this pervasive bifurcation: symmetry just ever so slightly off that people have taken this imbued duality of existence and they have expressed in the way that they see the world. There are two kinds of everything that hing on a single category, but they swing apart at that hinge into not close approximations of each other, but radically different approaches to the category in question. What we are talking about here is the ever present: “There are two kinds of people in the world – those who ________ and those who ________.”

A cursory examination of any dictionary of quotations reveals a rich mine of such quotations:

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who walk into a room and say, "There you are" and those who say, "Here I am"”
Abigail Van Buren

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating—people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Oscar Wilde

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
Charles Mingus

There are two kinds of people in the world, those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
Clint Eastwood aka Blondie in “The Good the Bad and the Ugly”

At every party there are two kinds of people—those who want to go home and those who don’t. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other.
Ann Landers

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matters; second, telling other people to do so.
Bertrand Russell

In all the above we note that at a certain simplistic level we can agree with all of the above. At another level, however, we note that this simplification is ridiculous and so we chuckle. This leads into the whole rich field of jokes that start: “There are two kinds of .. .

There are two kinds of lawyers. Those who know the law, and those who know the judge.

There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.

There are two kinds of people: those who blog and those who don’t.

There are two kinds of people: those who are from North Dakota and those who wish they were.

OK, so these are not so funny. You can probably make up better ones yourself. Give it a whirl and send in as comments. Big Frank will then compile and post in one long list. There are two kinds of ________: _________ and _________. That’s the formula and the inclination is built in – so go with the flow. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who will respond and write in and . . . . those who won’t. Be of the first group.