Do we see life in black and white?
Dear friend,
Did you know we all wear glasses?
Yes, we see the world through our particular lens.
It is sad, but many of us see only in black and white.
I don’t mean we are color blind.
I mean, we see everything in absolute terms.
people
ideas
theories
religions
ideologies
political parties
Presidents
candidates
bosses
partners
family members…
They are either ALL GOOD or ALL BAD.
There is nothing in between.
We judge everyone and everything in a total way.
Trump is the ultimate example of black and white thinking.
He brays nothing but paranoid absolute judgments
all day every day
and his toady echo chamber repeats them.
But…
have you noticed that we who oppose Trump
have ourselves been increasingly seeing in black and white
as the election approaches?
We know Trump is scared of defeat.
Is our own fear of defeat
resulting in our starting to speak more like him?
Tell me—do you know anyone right now in America
who doesn’t use extreme all good and all bad terms
to describe who and what is going on?
How you see yourself
You may be in a place right now
where you see yourself
in black and white.
You may be feeling defeated and depressed
and are being barraged with painful images
from the destructive part of your mind.
If it is any comfort,
the self appointed saviors of humanity
and cultural/political fanatics on both left and right
who see themselves as all good
are in worse trouble than you.
Being so perfectly righteous and correct,
they are in such deep denial of their own problems
that they are impervious to self examination.
I once knew a therapist,
a fellow psychologist who sought my support
because he was facing disciplinary action.
I didn’t know if the action was justified or not.
But as he told me about the situation
he put his hands on his heart,
looked me full in the eyes and declared
“There is no bad IN me!!!”
I thought WOW.
Any psychologist who sees himself as that pure
has no business doing psychotherapy.
Same goes for doing politics.
When we are a child we think as a child
As a child
we think in black and white.
Everything is either good or bad.
In the early stages of our life
we have a stark view of people.
We either love them
or we hate and fear them.
This is the basic paranoid outlook
we were all born with.
Some of us, like Trump,
never grow up.
Those of us who are able to mature
begin to see that life is not that simple.
If we are very, very fortunate
we come to realize
that our mother is neither a monster
nor a saint.
And it even begins to dawn on us
that neither are we.
We begin to emerge
from seeing only in black and white.
Yet
in political and religious matters
our absolute thinking continues to hold us back.
We still see our own kind
—those who agree with us—
as pure and correct.
And we see all those others–
those who see political and religious questions
differently than we do—
as incorrect and evil.
All or nothing
We all know
we are in the midst of this dangerous division
right now in America.
Each half of our country
has begun seeing the other half as “the enemy.”
Each side contains a core of paranoid zealots
utterly convinced that every view they hold is correct
and every view the other side holds
is wrong, dangerous, and anti-freedom.
Both fanatical cores, though small,
are lusting to provoke and promote armed conflict
so they can wipe out all the “traitors” on the other side.
Both cores are made up of highly masochistic nut cases
who have no belief in seeking collaboration and compromise
to solve a single one
of our serious moral, political, economic and international problems.
Indeed, they have no belief
in the fundamental civic mechanisms
of a democratic society.
To the black and white thinker
it is all or nothing.
Each core of all or nothing thinkers
defines freedom
in a way that is antithetical
to the other half of our country.
And each side refuses to listen
to the other side’s objections.
Combining the best elements
of both definitions of freedom
is never even considered.
These zealous extremists have zero interest
in building a principled, moderate,
sane and constructive political center
that can hold our country together.
Not human
Not only does each core of extremists
see the other side as the enemy,
they no longer see them as human.
The far right sees the left as vermin.
The far left sees the right as maggots.
What is to be done with vermin?
What is to be done with maggots?
Isn’t extermination what we do with pests?
Immunity
When we surrender to dehumanizing words
like vermin and maggots
we are being used.
We become vulnerable
to joining mobs
and carrying out destructive acts
we will later regret.
We must become immune to all forms
of psychological, spiritual and political propaganda.
Such propaganda is utilized to dehumanize “the other”
so we can do violence to the so called “enemy”
and do it without guilt.
If we surrender to propaganda
and join in viewing the other half of our country
as vermin or as maggots
how will we be any different from Nazis
calling the Jews vermin, rats and parasites
to prepare the country for their annihilation?
Barbarism
William Golding in Lord of the Flies
showed us the barbarism that unfolds
when the sadistic part of our mind
is unleashed.
In 1936-1939 the people of Spain
murdered their own neighbors
when an ideological war broke out
between the right and the left.
Both sides were convinced
that the survival of their beloved country
made it necessary
for one side to physically destroy the other.
Sound familiar?
They then proceeded to do so.
“The Spanish Civil War proved to be
a breeding ground for mass atrocities,
carried out by belligerents
eager to eradicate their ideological opponents.
About 500,000 people lost their lives in the conflict.
Of these, about 200,000 died as the result of systematic killings,
mob violence, torture, or other brutalities.” — Wiki
You and I must prevent such a catastrophe
from happening right here in America.
Our way of seeing needs to be educated
Everyone talks about the importance of a good education.
Mostly, they mean one that will set us up
for a job with a good income.
So if we study hard,
get a job and make good money,
does that mean we are educated?
No.
Becoming educated is about developing
a free, mature and independent mind
immune to indoctrination and propaganda.
Immune to lies from within
and immune to lies from without.
A free and educated mind
has the capacity to see through lies
and see through manipulation.
It is able to reject simplistic pseudo solutions.
It rejects dogmatic thinking
by being able to see people and ideas and situations
in multiple dimensions and colors
not just in black and white.
By developing a free and educated mind
we become capable of seeing ourselves and others
in all our many dimensions and aspects,
both positive and negative.
Our vision sets us free
Our capacity to see everything and everyone
in all their colors
and in all their intentions
liberates us.
It liberates us from becoming haters
and
it liberates us from becoming bootlickers.
We no longer give immediate and total acceptance
nor immediate and total rejection
to any idea or cause.
No matter who said it
—somebody on our side
or somebody on the other side.
We are nobody’s puppet
nobody’s excuse
nobody’s cannon fodder
nobody’s gullible sucker for conspiracy theories
neither “The Haitians are eating our dogs and cats!”
nor “Those shots fired at Trump weren’t real!”
We are NOBODY’S FOOL.
No matter how much social, political or financial pressure
is applied to us.
We do not simply react to “the news”
Instead of reacting to each new piece of news
with an automatic ignorant rant
we thoughtfully and carefully evaluate
the event, the person, the statement, the issue.
We consider the organizations
behind the idea or event or policy
being promoted to us.
We do our best to evaluate people, leaders and policies
with balance and discernment.
We apply hard earned historical wisdom
so that we do not blindly repeat
the tragic blunders of the past.
Instead of making extreme ALL GOOD or ALL BAD judgments,
we endeavor to see and understand
the full complexity of the difficult situations
we are dealing with.
We assess the mixture of constructive and destructive elements
that make up the whole person,
the whole situation,
the whole consequences.
We size up reality
rather than cave in to anyone’s fantasy.
We continually question our own assumptions.
We listen and learn from others
and not just those on our own side.
We become capable
of finding and cherishing the gold
in others and in ourselves
at the same time as we become capable
of recognizing and defeating
the destructive aspects of all of us.
When we fight we win
So,
do we still stand up to defeat the fascist forces
who are planning once again
to deny the results of the election
and to launch a far more serious coup this time
to dismantle and destroy our Republic?
You bet we do.
With clear heads and hearts
we boldly and decisively join
with all Americans of good will
to defend our beloved Republic.
Our loyalty
We loyal Americans
are free to be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu,
or to hold any other faith or spiritual perspective.
We are not loyal to one specific religious doctrine.
That’s why we came here in the first place!
To be free to worship according to our own soul.
Nor are we loyal to ideology.
Nor to Party.
Nor to any zealot of any Party.
We are loyal to our Republic.
And we defend the Constitution which upholds it.
That is why we give our Pledge of Allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation
under God,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.”
That is our solemn pledge.
Let us renew it now
as we face together
the best and the worst that is to come.
If, in these momentous coming months,
it becomes necessary for the preservation of our Republic
to invoke the Insurrection Act
and bring in the military who are loyal to the Constitution
so be it.
President Biden will know what to do.
And we ourselves will be far stronger
in defending our Republic
and far more constructive
leaders of America’s new birth of freedom
that will surely emerge from the victory of democracy
if we do not
in the process of defeating the fascists
become black and white thinkers ourselves.
We appreciate seeing the world in b&w because it brings us a false comfort of "knowing." Not knowing is anathema to our understanding of tranquility. I posit that fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of the human psyche.
Rather than be afraid of what we don't know or don't understand or appreciate, we create personal or communal stories to fill in the places where our mind is in doubt.
Not knowing is hard but if accepted, can be very freeing. We don't need to create other worldly or even plain false narratives or myths to assuage our fear of the unknown.
Living with ambiguity and the inability to change the past or accurately predict the future can be freeing and is a product of maturity. We're not as think as we smart we are...hehe.
Your 'Solutions' become more profound and moving with every week. The true value of education is in overcoming the fear that motivates and enables seeing the world in black and white. As you note, we're taught as children "Stranger Danger", and to fear death as the unknowable afterworld where we'll have to deal with the adverse consequences of everything we've ever done or thought that was wrong. Learning that not everyone we don't know is a danger and that a God who could and would create a universe such as we live in would have no reason to load the game against that creation takes a tremendous load off one's mind and enables a freedom of viewpoint and behavior that makes doctrinaire extremist positions of any sort almost impossible to envision let alone accept.
Once we are (more or less) free of fear, we're more able to see the nuances in any situation and to accept the differences that are an intended feature of our society writ large rather than a bug to be eliminated. What is hard to understand is those people who, contra their apparent life situations, espouse a public position for political or social aggrandizement that serves only a short-term, rather mundane goal. We're meant to be better than that, and, to the extent that we take time and make the effort to become educated and to support each other through the necessary growing pains, we will be.
In the meantime, make a plan to vote, encourage others to do so, and when making your decision on who to vote for, consider which candidates and other actions support life as you'd like it to be lived and which oppose it.