by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

You likely know the panicked feeling of being 17 and being forced to make decisions about the rest of your life. You have no clue. So you fake it. Then you bravely trudge forward into your adult life.

If you screwed up that decision, take solace in the fact that there's a strong scientific argument for the existence of parallel universes. Thankfully I have insufficient room to present the full scientific support for it in this column. But the evidence comes from precedents in quantum physics that suggest that every decision you make opens up a new universe where you go down a different path.

In a parallel universe you've made an entirely different series of choices and now you're some entirely different person.

This means many things. For example, the next time your loved one catches you eyeing a foxy babe, patiently explain that you're entitled to stare because in another dimension you and that person got married and had 12 kids.

In some of these other realities the loved ones you lost live on.

In another you're running shirtless down the streets of Kathmandu.

Perhaps the local poster boy for the phenomenon of parallel universes is the nationalist leader Raymond Villeneuve.

Every time I talk to Villeneuve, he refers to the choice that he made while young, to become a nationalist revolutionary.

He sounds like he was stuck with his choice and he's making the best of it.

When I ask him if he has kids, he explains that his decision to become a nationalist revolutionary eliminated that possibility.

His twin brother followed in the family business, a bakery. He could have done the same, but he didn't because of his choice to pursue a career spreading the shocking, awful news that us anglos are holding the francos down.

He's honouring his choice, as if it were a permanent contract.

His supporters carry a flag of an old-fashioned slob wearing a toque, carrying a rifle. It's meant to symbolize the 1837 rebellion. It's cute as hell.

The flag irks local anarchists because they believe his brand of nationalism to be reactionary: anti-immigrant and anti-abortion.

Villeneuve says that in the past his group wasn't too keen on immigrants, but they've changed. He says only one of his members, admittedly a loud one, is anti-abortion.

The anarchists aren't exactly tolerant of Villeneuve's boys showing up at the same protests. Recently, a Villeneuve supporter was beaten by anarchists. Villeneuve, who usually disassociates himself from such thuggish promises, has vaguely vowed a vengeful comeuppance.

Cops have questioned him. They worry he plans to burn down the anarchist HQ on the Main just below Sherbrooke, or the Café Chaos on St-Denis, both of which are known hotbeds for his anarchist opponents. He says he won't. But both have had their windows smashed repeatedly.

He admits that revolutionary separatism isn't an easy sell these days. Politically oriented students are opting for the anti-Bush, anti-globalization option that now dominates school politics.

So the anglo-baiting option is unpopular with the youths.

In an inexplicable way, I feel for young extremists. I assume they're emotionally damaged. They're impossibly trying to heal secret wounds with ideology. They're idealistic, vital, energetic. They care. And yes, they're often wrong, but they don't blandly stare at their shoes and listen to their MP3 players like the rest of us. But then I remember that their agendas are sometimes odious and even dangerous.

Villeneuve partially blames anarchist all-star Jaggi Singh for targeting his group. I wanted to phone Singh but he's a rebel without a phone. He said he'd find a phone but I'd have to tape the conversation. I balked. The technological burden seemed one-sided.

It's okay that I didn't chat with Singh. In another universe I clean donkey stables and Singh keeps phoning me, trying to sell me RRSPs.

In another reality Villeneuve grumpily sells baguettes.

There must be another universe where we all get along. But I'll bet it's really dull.

Comments? kgravy@openface.ca