Held together by false dichotomies
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Our modern world has been held together by false dichotomies.
Communism vs Capitalism.
Russian vs American.
East vs West.
Republican vs Democrat.
Conservative vs Liberal.
American Dream (American Exceptionalism) vs American forces seeking plutocracy
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These are false dichotomies because there are of course many ways to approach anything and everything, but the scale has been balanced along the lines of these dichotomies and the lines are taut. The tension holds the sides together and juxtaposed against each other artificially.
But now, these systems are in danger of all falling apart. Some systems are failing because one extreme has folded into the other, Chinese Communism has embraced Capitalism. Donald Trump has embraced Putin and other autocratic leaders.
Some systems are failing because forces within each system seek to eradicate the opposite force, rather than dance with it as historically has been done; no more “give and take”. American politicians have aligned with Trump because they seek greater plutocracy, the American Dream be damned. Normal American citizens have listened to his forked tongue, buying into his hate mongering, and are all in on taking something away from someone else, be it his simplistic ideas on China, or immigrants, or his full on hatred of liberals and his war on the media. His people are all in that SOMEONE is screwing them, and this guy is gonna set it all straight, and those people need to get screwed right back!.. forgetting that the system was in balance, we had a system of give and take, a system of compromise. It was a pretty good system. And when you cut one weight in a balanced system the other one will be in freefall. The system will break.
It is a dangerous game to become an extremist, and to encourage your base to become extremists. The natural response in a system when one side becomes extremist is for the other side to move toward the opposite extreme. For every robocall, there is an equal and opposite robocall. For every bullshit media source, there is an equal and opposite bullshit media source. For every bullshit attack ad, there is an equal and opposite. For every intolerant policy, there is an equal and opposite EXTREMELY tolerant policy.
You will not get what you want by attempting to eradicate the other side. You simply will not. You might get anarchy. You might get civil war. You might get nuclear war. But you will not win what you wish to win by becoming more extreme and pitting yourself against your opposition with no compromise.
I’m scared for us all.
