74. I strongly agree that rule-breakers are the most memorable people. By departing
from the status quo, iconoclasts call attention to themselves, some providing
conspicuous mirrors for society, others serving as our primary catalysts for progress.
In politics, for example, rule-breakers Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King
secured prominent places in history by challenging the status quo through civil
disobedience. Renegades such as Ghengus Khan, Stalin, and Hussein, broke all the
human-rights rules, thereby leaving indelible marks in the historical record. And
future generations will probably remember Nixon and Kennedy more clearly than
Carter or Reagan, by way of their rule-breaking activities―specifically, Nixons
Watergate debacle and Kennedys extra-marital trysts.
In the arts, mavericks such as Dali, Picasso, and Warhol, who break established
rules of composition, ultimately emerge as the greatest artists, while the names of artists
with superior technical skills are relegated to the footnotes of art-history textbooks. Our
most influential popular musicians are the flagrant rule breakers―for example, be-bop
musicians such as Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk, who broke all the harmonic
rules, and folk musician-poet Bob Dylan, who broke the rules for lyrics.
In the sciences, innovation and progress can only result from challenging
conventional theories―i.e., by breaking rules. Newton and Einstein, for example, both
refused to blindly accept what were perceived at their time as certain rules of physics.
As a result, both men redefined those rules, and both men emerged as two of the most
memorable figures in the field of physics.
In conclusion, it appears that the deepest positive and negative impressions appear
on either side of the same iconoclastic coin. Those who leave the most memorable
imprints in history do so by challenging norms, traditions, cherished values, and the
general status quo―that is, by breaking the rules.