Nothing's Black and White ; it's all Shades of Grey

A university lecturer told me that 25 years ago. It was great advice then, even more so now.

We'd been discussing politics, nuclear weapons, the whole wide world, everything. He'd been a lecturer for 40 plus years by the time he took our class, he'd seen ideologies come and go, he'd heard all the arguments of his new, fresh faced student intakes, year after year after year. And he seemed really down when he mentioned this to us ... as if his own vital spark had been extinguished by reality ; innocence finally being trumped by experience.

But it is with experience and maturity that you realise how true his words were. I didn't understand him then. I do now, with the passage of time.

Sure, Black and White are invariably popular ... because with Black and White you never have to listen to your opponent. Black and White make for great viewing, for wonderful animated debate. You're on one side or the other, there's no in between. There's little thought involved too, most times, it's tribal. And it's lazy too, dog tired in fact, same old same old.

I say little thought involved. Occasionally with Black and White you find a gem amongst the many hundreds of garnets ; Ronald Reagan standing up against the USSR in the early 1980's, for example. That was perfect, justified Black and White. Britain standing up to the Nazis in WW2, another great example. The creation of the British National Health Service, morality in action ... truly inspiring. But those are the exceptions, perhaps with a few others.

All too often the only things we get with Black and White are ... intolerance, hatred, division. We get Northern Ireland twenty years ago ... but our friend Shades of Grey gives us Northern Ireland today, at peace. We get racism and apartheid, now reconciliation and community.

Shades of Grey is a more problematic friend. She's difficult to define, she's more time consuming, she's not clear cut. She requires considerable input, our own energy & thought. And in this modern age, when everything has to fit into 60 second news segments or 140 word tweets, no-one likes Shades of Grey anymore. She's been abandoned by most, left to languish in the world of academia where there's time a plenty.

Poor Shades of Grey. Dowdy, dusty, abandoned and unloved.

Doesn't she deserve better ?

I think she does. And I'm posting my love for Shades of Grey here, in US Political Madness, where she's most urgently required, don't you think ?

I have been saying this over and over and no one seems to listen.

There are only very few situations in this world where the answer is black and white. This is the problem with our world. Examples are the following...

Republicans and Democrats
Pro Life and Pro Choice
With us or against us
Certain crimes

You could talk about anything. The people who can see more than the two colors of black and white will be the ones who teach us the most in this world.

originally posted by: FritosBBQTwist
I have been saying this over and over and no one seems to listen.

There are only very few situations in this world where the answer is black and white. This is the problem with our world. Examples are the following...

Republicans and Democrats
Pro Life and Pro Choice
With us or against us
Certain crimes

You could talk about anything. The people who can see more than the two colors of black and white will be the ones who teach us the most in this world.

The world is definitely more grey now than before, same for the US.

You'd have thought with the instability in the world right now after Ukraine, there would be a bigger sense of unity in the US and its allies, but even Japan has now decided to purchase Russian oil.

We also now apparently appear to be in a new cold war of sorts, but we still gladly openly trade and accept goods to and from China.

If it's supposed to be a new cold war, then it really doesn't look like the one we have seen before...

Likewise, the old corner stones of our democracies that were all built upon are now shifting, but to what, where and why, nobody yet knows.

a reply to: Ulala

Fits well with how I view perfection.

In a perfect world everything is perfect.

Interject self into that world and it all changes.

A contracted I am, changes perfect into imperfect.

A=A

It always will.

There is objective truth, i.e. reality.

The subjectivity of my truth, his/her/their truth is a fallacy. There is only the truth.

originally posted by: Moon68
A=A

It always will.

There is objective truth, i.e. reality.

The subjectivity of my truth, his/her/their truth is a fallacy. There is only the truth.

The problem we have with an objective truth is that in reality, we never see the same thing when we come face to face with it.

Take three people walking together. They come across a stray puppy lying in the grass.

One sees a small helpless animal that needs help, and wants to take it with them.
One sees a small animal that is probably diseased and needs to be put out of is misery and destroyed.
One sees a small animal that is resting, and should be left alone and let nature take its course.

They all will admit it is an animal, but they all have strong individual feelings about what it is and what to do about it.

The problem we have is not always seeing the truth, it is how we chose to see the truth, and our dwindling ability to listen, discuss, and create an amiable solution.

The prevailing climate of my way or the highway, is a bigger problem than subjective truth.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

I do see what you are saying but I respectfully disagree. Objective reality is, in fact, truth and other than in the case of a psychological disconnect from reality, we all see the same truth.

Your example of the three people and the puppy demonstrates the subjective opinions of said people based on their individual perceptions.

I definitely agree with your last line. Objectivism, subjectivism and absolutism are all three different things with the last anathema to finding true solutions.

a reply to: Ulala

“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

I have nothing of value to add to this thread but to say, I remember this line from Soul Man. White woman wants to date the main character ( a white guy posing as a black guy for a scholarship) and tells him she doesn't see black and white....just shades of gray.

At the end of the movie she tries the same line on an American Indian (er, Native American? Indigenous American?) and says she doesn't see white and red, just shade of pink....

I'll see myself out now.