Someone I greatly respect noted that however well-intentioned my previous post was, I was actually falling into a rather nasty trap of thought. In fact, worse than that, I actively enticed any readers (mercifully few) into falling into it as well.
Binary thinking.
For my part I believe my partiality to it is aggravated from my extensive exposure to American Culture. Americans especially are trained into Binary Thinking, it's very useful for manipulating the populace.
Do you vote Democrat or Republican? Is one good and the other bad? Is one Friend and the other Foe? What do you do then, when both choices are terrible?
This is where I steered people wrong, and this is a shame. Binary thinking cripples thought terribly.
Humanity in general is very prone to thinking in black or white. Good or bad. Friend or Foe- and the temptation is easy to understand as it provides one with a relatively simple world in which they are always 'good' or 'right'.
But it's profoundly illusory.
Now, don't misunderstand me, extremes do exist. Good and evil do exist. I would advise being wary of anyone who insists there are no such things. That said, finding such things in their pure forms is roughly as likely as finding a true-to-myth living unicorn.
We do not live in a binary world, so binary thinking- though convenient- leaves you critically vulnerable to manipulation as stated before and prone to, even entirely left to your own devices, horrible mistakes.
Binary thinking works for a binary world where it is Day or Night and not, in fact, evening or morning or Brunch. Ever.
Which I suppose we all know, but tend to selectively forget when we're provoked to outrage against 'Others'.
Progress contines!
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