
So much thinking is black and white (in business as well as in politics). “Good guys” vs “bad guys”, good things and bad things. “Which side are you on?”
But for many of us it’s not that simple.
Wouldn’t it be good if people who are anti-Trump could admit that something he has done is good? And wouldn’t it be good if someone pro-Trump could admit that something he did WASN’T good? At the moment, one comment either way and you’re either a believer or you’re not, and half the population decides you’re a bad person. So the result is that many people don’t even want to risk revealing an opinion on anything, which is a great shame.
This is not about politics, it’s about precise thinking, a bit of nuance, shades of grey.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a conversation about, for example immigration? Maybe it’s not all good or all bad, maybe it’s partly good, maybe there’s an ideal point, or an acceptable range, above which we have too many people to absorb and below which we’re not doing our bit to help people in need, and also a point at which don’t have enough people to do all the jobs that need to be done? Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to discuss where this point is, and how to achieve it? Instead we have to have generalised accusations about “racists” and “being weak” which might sometimes be true but which make sensible discussion impossible.
This polarisation is of course fed by social media, to the point where everything is “you’re either with us or against us” – DEI, trans, Brexit, Israel vs Hamas, you name it, we have to take a side – any middle-ground question or middle-ground opinion will be interpreted as being fully on one side or the other, so no discussions are possible. Resolution is much less likely. Such a shame!
Even to distinguish between the Israeli government, the people of Israel, and Jews living in the UK, seems beyond many people. To distinguish between Hamas and the people of Gaza, the Palestinian population, seems impossible in discussions about the problems between those countries. We can do better than this!
So the next time someone has an opinion, let’s not zoom out and assume we know everything they think about everything, let’s hear them out and see WHY they are saying what they are. Maybe there’s something good we can learn or gain from the conversation?