On Choosing Sides

Hello apes!
Who's side are you on?

Each day we nervous hominids fall for a simple magic trick- we choose a side. Of course these quick decision can be good, such as choosing to run left or right away from a pack of wolves to save our own arse, but we have a chronic disorder of choosing sides in our complex society (our series of relationships to other humans and groups of humans). Quick assertions have no rational place in complex situations. Absolutes have no place in our complex relations. There are often truths on both sides. To choose only one side is absurdity. We see this in politics, race relations, religion, philosophy, economics, business, and other subjects in which our biased certitudes lead to dogmatic ideal.
Here are a few examples of absurdities:

• I can't do yoga because I'm a baptist.
• Diet X is right and diet Y is wrong.
• We need to preserve our values.
• Only hippies like trees.
• Timothy McVeigh is a Christian. He bombed a federal building. Therefore, all Christians are terrorists.
• He/she is a Republican/Democrat/other so whatever they think is wrong.
• My god is the  only one true god.
• Studies show that broccoli (or whatever) is healthy/unhealthy, or good/bad, or right/wrong, or true/false.
• Person A is smarter than person B.
• Anyone against the government is a traitor.
• Frogs are green. (generalization)
• Abortion doctors are murderers.
• Christopher Columbus discovered America.
• Women belong in the kitchen.
• Our dog has cancer and we should put it down. Grandma has cancer and we should keep her alive to suffer until the very end.
• Don't do anything wrong ("Just obey no matter what!") and you don't have to worry/be afraid/get arrested/get shot/etc. (fascist logic)
• My Kung Fu is better than your Kung Fu.
• Bomb them!

Some situations are complex. We think we must always support the side we are on or go against the side we have chosen against. We are often led astray by our own blind ideals. We club each other over the head with our own confused brains as if they were bricks. The reality is that you don't need to agree to understand. You can understand and even support some aspect of another side. A democrat may understand and support a particular Republican issue, and vice versa. A dog may rescue a cat from a fire, and then commence its cartoonish chasing. A storm may lead to sunshine and flowers. A chicken may proudly strut across the road with no real reason or wrongdoing. There is something to be learned from everyone. Take no absolute sides. Embrace no total ideology. Live no other life or mind.

Humanity is found in understanding all sides. This can be achieved with a whole view of all sides rather than a devicive view. You are not required to choose a side.

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” 

-Bruce Lee

*"The Poetic Realities, The Poetic Fantasies" book is coming soon. See www.larengreyumphlett.com for more information.