Conviction to a degree considered delirious by modern attitudes is a prerequisite for greatness. The all-too-modern calm rationality and reasonableness is a disease of avolition.
I have always been a calm, rational and reasonable person. I would definitely be classified as an “intellectual”. However, to use a somewhat banal example, in all my greatest workouts, I have had a very clear sense of drive, fire, and to some extent delirium. I’ve become increasingly able to conjure it as I’ve connected with my intuitive human spirit more with time. It used to happen maybe once every 10 or 20 workouts, but now I achieve it about every 3 or 4 workouts. I see visions of the glorious future I’m bringing fourth. Toward the later stages of a set, when sweat and fatigue seem like all I know, desperate to squeeze every last rep out of my depleted glycogen stores, I might clench my eyelids shut in concentration, causing visions to appear.
I see my future wife, angelic, her platinum hair blooming with the speckled sunlight shining through the trees, a healing presence, feminine like a nymph, turning in her white tulle dress. The greater my effort, the more beautiful she becomes, and the deeper she admires me. We’re in our magical remote forest home, she melts into my arms, smiling up at me. I see our sons playing in the bushes; strong, capable, respectful. I see them guarding their sisters; beautiful, playful, happy.
It’s all gone again within the decisecond, but like the bloom of a stun grenade, the imprint remains on my retina. Glimpses of the scene come back to me between the fighting of iron and sweat. Whenever the fates deem I need it most.
This same sort of passion, zeal and fire-in-the-torso thumos has been the driving force behind most of my proudest achievements.
If you are a modern reasonable person, you will clearly think this is silly and delirious! You’ve been inculcated to view any passion as dangerous. That people working towards something much bigger than themselves is delusion.
Modern man, therefore, has no idea the dedication and conviction needed to realize something like the Duomo di Milano. They have no theory of mind for the men that spearheaded this. No way to even imagine the internal texture of the mind of someone steeped in this sort of fervor. He is alienated from this flame of life and vitality. And so he judges it harshly. He decries everything that lead up to it: The religion, the passion, the philosophy, the conquering, the supposedly insane idea that it was even possible to build. Yet, he would be a fool to deny that this is greater than anything he will ever contribute to. He must admit that these achievements are among man’s grandest. He curses the tree, the seed, and its planting, all while enjoying its fruits.
How many people deem Elon Musk insane? Hell, he may even say so himself! However, all the people calling him delusional for thinking we can or should conquer Mars sure aren’t doing anything for our conquest of space. He is.
Alexander saw himself as the son of Zeus-Ammon. “He was insane! Delusions of grandeur!” they claim. Yet, he was the one who reined over more than half of the known world, and to this day we call him “the Great”, so who is really the delusional one?
Those who hear not the music think the dancers mad. You need to be comfortable looking insane. To move outside the myths and conventions of the commoners. Ignore the charges of delusions of grandeur, because they are only delusions up until the point at which grandeur is achieved.