Edge.org got interesting results last year when it put forward the question,
"What do you believe in even though you cannot prove it?". This year, they perhaps strayed far into the realm of the political when they asked the question
"What is your dangerous idea?"
The results are, whether you find them repugnant or intriguing, definitely thought provoking. I'll excerpt a few that stood out to me below the fold.
On the intriguing side we have:
Philip Zimbardo says:
Those people who become perpetrators of evil deeds and those who become perpetrators of heroic deeds are basically alike in being just ordinary, average people.
The banality of evil is matched by the banality of heroism. Both are not the consequence of dispositional tendencies, not special inner attributes of pathology or goodness residing within the human psyche or the human genome. Both emerge in particular situations at particular times when situational forces play a compelling role in moving individuals across the decisional line from inaction to action.
[...]
John Allen Paulos :
Doubt that a supernatural being exists is banal, but the more radical doubt that we exist, at least as anything more than nominal, marginally integrated entities having convenient labels like "Myrtle" and "Oscar," is my candidate for Dangerous Idea. [...]
On the repugnant end, James O'Donnell states:
[...]
But it is remarkable how little of human excellence and achievement has ever taken place in capital cities and around those elites, whose cultural history is one of self-mockery and implicit acceptance of the marginalization of the powerful. Borderlands and frontiers (and even suburbs) are where the action is.
[...]
That is all just on page one! Go give it a read.