Symmetry & Balance – Connecting Art & Science with a Moderating Act

Art and Science are often seen as opposites, as the irrational and the rational, the illogical and the logical, the humane and the inhumane, but they are similar to each other than either would like to reveal. They are both existing in a reality that’s dependent on a delicate balancing act, and any disturbance to it causes chaos. I take a satirical dive into many examples and topics in this article and explore the metaphysics behind Symmetry and Balance, and the reasoning behind how Art and Science are connected to each other with a balancing act. If that interests you, then hold on to your focus, as this ride will get bumpy. 

   Life is never as perfect or easy as it seems, always requiring adjustments in the form of balancing acts. Newton’s third law of motion is about the equal and opposite reaction to balance out the force wave; karma speaks about what goes around, comes around, for all the good and the bad regardless of the situation; a classical identifier of beauty in art focuses on symmetry in shape and form; a basic rule of narrative for storytellers involves setup and payoff, which is very similar to symmetry, just not in an immediately visual context. All these things in art and science seem to be focused on the balancing act, and rightly so, as it can be the fundamental essence of reality. It may look like I’m overacting, but this is a truly amazing concept with thousands of minute examples in all our day-to-day lives, and the examples will only keep getting weirder. 

   While making a cup of coffee, if we pour more coffee than milk, the imbalance leans towards the insomnia side of the spectrum. If we pour more milk than coffee, then it’s decaf or latte which won’t help our focus. How we take our coffee is a personal preference for us all, and yes, it is a trivial example, and I did warn you that it would get satirical, and it will only keep getting weirder. Cooking a meal is a balancing act with all the ingredients, as any form of imbalance may result anywhere from the mere discomfort to our tastebuds to a good profit for our personal doctors. Pouring water to a bunch of potted plants can result in them dying of dehydration if they don’t get enough to the plants being flooded to their doom if they get too much. 

   Petty examples aside, let’s talk about a society as a whole. When a society’s beliefs get too strong on the fanatical side, they become warmongering extremists, and when their beliefs falter without any faith, they end up collapsing with infighting and weakness. But when a society’s beliefs are strong enough at the perfect balance to stay functional, strong, and constructive, they benefit from their moderation. 

   The same thing can be seen in the individual psyche with our emotions. A person without any ego or rage can end up being unambitious and lazy, without any direction to move towards, and a person with too much ego and rage can be a short-tempered, monstrous, narcissistic scumbag. With the proper balance, a person with the right amount of ego and rage can be a well-motivated, striving, ambitious, fueled soul. 

   Moving back to the weird stuff, we could say that art and science both rely on this same balancing force of reality. Art is usually seen as more abstract, but most of the meaningful, classical, and timeless pieces of art are not abstract, that is, they are structured to formulas, order, narratives, and story beats that have a sense of meaning. Science, which is usually seen as physical and quantitative, is moving more and more into the realm of the theoretical in the recent years, and theory is the most abstract, unquantifiable, indefinite form of reasoning there is. 

   Not to put down anything, but this balancing force existing in all forms of art and science seems to have always been there and will always be there, regardless of the beliefs of humans. This symmetry-obsessed force in nature can be seen as an agent of moderation, a protector of order in the chaos, and moderation has always been the most important value to obsess over. From the Stoics and the Buddhists during the ancient times to many whacky modern-day popular nonfiction writers, all are still obsessed with moderation exactly because everything in nature, including our own human nature, is designed to stray away from moderation at every chance it gets. As Oscar Wilde once said, Everything in Moderation, Including Moderation, and that’s an ideal worth glorifying, as the very nature of physics is designed in favor of moderation. 

   The Yin and Yang is also a symbol of balance and symmetry that’s found in everything in nature as an agent of moderation. Too much sugar in our daily consumption leads to diabetes, too little leads to low blood sugar, which is also dangerous. Too much salt, too little salt, they’re both dangerous. Increased power to the law enforcement can lead to an authoritarian police state and misuse of power and incidents like police brutality, but removing the powers of the law enforcement would lead to an increase in violent crime and a lack of public safety. Everything, in reality, depends on a balancing act for the best solution, and anything else would lead to an extreme of a form of evil, depending on which end of the spectrum is getting favored. 

   I’m certainly not a believer in any form of intelligent design behind the universe, as I’m a skeptic in these things, but all things I mentioned in this article do bring out a sense of wonder even in a cynic like me. The co-incidences are everywhere about the importance of symmetry and balance in every aspect of life and reality. Every field of study, every form of work, every area of expertise is loaded with them in both art and science. It’s got no morality or politics behind the balancing act that’s exactly the meaning of the greatness behind it. Nature does not care about the rapidly shifting morals and politics of humans which are almost always tribalistic in nature. Moderation and balance can be the greatest virtue that we as humans can ever learn from our reality, as humans have always recorded to have been obsessed with it in some form or another at many eras and locations. Art and science are and always has infiltrated into our daily lives, for example, our smartphones, laptops, vehicles, food, restaurants, apps, this website, social media, our clothes, the stories we consume, the work that we do all have a mix of art and science and they all, in turn, have nurture’s balancing force in them. 

   Yes, this is mindblowing, but I haven’t mentioned anything that you haven’t already known about. This is just a perspective to humble ourselves and get amazed with satire, metaphysics, science & art. If you enjoyed it, do share the article with anyone you’d know who’d also be mindblown by it and spread the amazement.