We are ruining our world and ourselves by insisting that important issues are toggle switches instead of slide switches.
You know the difference. A toggle switch has a limited
number of settings—on and off, 0 or 1. A slider can be moved across a span
between two extremes, and can include many states between. Toggle-thinking
allows for only two static states: it’s A or B; it’s black or white.
Slider-thinking allows for a spectrum of states: it’s anywhere from A through
Z; it’s black, white, or many shades of grey.
For any political or cultural issue, there are surely A and
Z positions, and people who hold them. But there are millions of people who
hold hundreds of views between those extremes, and their voices are effectively
shut out of the discourse, because winning an argument is now more important
than solving a problem, and A is a stronger argument against Z then W is.
But most of us live in the in-between, and we need to
reclaim that space, because it’s where problems are actually solved. And more
importantly, it’s where people find it possible to live together.
I’m a liberal. I like reading and having conversations with
conservatives, to learn how they see the country and the world. I like having
my opinions tested against other perspectives. But real dialogue is only
possible when both parties acknowledge and accept that the issue at hand is
actually represented by the full spectrum of opinions, not one extreme or the
other. Pro-Life and Pro-Choice are ridiculous team names. Everyone in the
country is pro-life, generally, and also pro-choice, generally. Most people
(not everyone) are also pro-both-sides on the specific issue of abortion, to varying
degrees. Acknowledging that the spectrum is real and valid is the beginning of
real discourse. Exploring where we all set our slider-switches is how we begin
to craft compromise and, ultimately, policy.
If you believe that the rights of the individual are
supreme, sacred, and inviolable—that all government is evil, that all taxation
is theft, and that no individual can be compelled to shape or change his
behavior or choices to accommodate any other individual, well…there’s no
discussion possible. If you believe that the health and vibrancy of the
community or the state is supreme and that what’s good for the group outweighs
what’s good for the individual—all the time, in all cases—there is likewise no
room for discussion. And some people do hold those extreme positions. I find
them scary people. They only see true believers and apostates, the forces of God
and the legions of Satan. The only resolution to the problem of different
opinions is cultural—or actual—war, and the obliteration of the Enemy.
For most of us, it’s the spectrum that’s real—the dynamic
tension of opposite positions, each of which has merit and both of which need
to be “in play” to some extent in order for us to be happy and healthy. Now we
can talk. Now we can argue about where on the spectrum we should draw the line
between individual rights and public life (for example). We can say, “Yes, a
business owner should have the right to offer the products and services that
she wants, the way she wants, BUT a citizen should also have the right to
purchase products and services on the open market, in the public square,
regardless of race, religion, gender, or any other personal detail. Now what
are we going to do about it?”
I’m tired of us not being able to get to, “What are we going
to do about it,” and I’m tired of pretending that this inability is accidental
or fated. It’s neither. Our inability to talk to each other and solve problems
is deliberate and planned. We are placed and kept at each other’s throats to
build and maintain the power and wealth of those who represent the extreme
positions—many of whom don’t even believe in those positions but have found it
profitable and advantageous to hold them.
The spectrum is messy and confusing. It requires argument.
It requires understanding. It requires shoving the slider a little more this
way, a little more that way, till you get the setting just right. Choosing A or
Z is a lot easier. Hating Z because you’re at A is also a lot easier.
But none of this was meant to be easy.
