One of us or one of them. Liberal or conservative. Top-down or bottom up. Progressive or retrograde. Robust or fragile. Pro something or anti something.
The world is an orange and it is cut in two halves. You must be in either side. Bot only one.
It’s an easy thing for the tired mind. There are only two shelves and you must file in either. But you must chose.
This is not just a simple anecdote. It has tremendous consequences. A collective of middle age whites managed recently to close London City airport by holding a demonstration pro ‘Black Lives Matters’. There may be hundred of reasons why one could opposed to such as stupid disruption but only one counts: you must be anti-racial-equality if yo do.
What if the opposite of progressive could be also non-regressive? The opposite of fragile, anti-fragile (Nassin Taleb dixit), and any other option beyond A or B?
Bipolar thinking is dangerous and, always, a sign of poor critical thinking. It’s a Descartes infection that needs to be repelled.
Rejection of bipolarity does not mean wild post-modern relativism, where anything is possible and nothing stands as ‘the truth’. Regardless the philosophical or even religious connotations (true/false vs. ‘it depends’), bipolar thinking is simply bad thinking. Full stop.
Anything presented to us as a bipolar choice should smell bad. It’s a cheap shortcut. We can do better. Our minds can do better.
Agree or disagree?