Thinking in Extremes
 
Our society suffers from a severe case of binary thinking, going from one extreme to another, so easily. What was at first a discussion becomes an argument. What seems like efficiency of language and logic, swift to conclude, is really laziness, a lamenting of reality, denying an experience due diligence. It’s easier to think in broad strokes, to simplify, but so much seeps through the cracks, as we sacrifice accuracy and truth, for ease.
In many ways this is built into our language, if we consider semiotics, the study of language as third-party symbols. The labels of words are useful for getting across lots of information quickly, but allow little room for variables, humans being the biggest of them all. A member of a sub-culture, for example, might tick many or few boxes under their banner. A Hippy might be loving, colorful, progressive, and pro-nature to some, or most, but an individual’s singular and negative experience of them, might mentally add drop-out, weirdo, drug addict. It’s impossible for every single member of the group to maintain every possible trait it encompasses, we’re all individuals, and the consensus in society is vague, abstract, and rarely consistent.  It’s important to remember the more efficient a thought, the more it encompasses, the more it assumes when describing. Do not let speculation sway action, take a step back and analyze all assumptions. Don’t ignore patterns, consider the details.
The same reason why it’s wrong to assume all people in a group are equal to its radicals, that every possibility with any, will lead to the same result. It’s just not the case, and dooms us into instigating that false reality, and making it true, through wrongful internalization, we instigate it.
You went through a bad breakup? Well, all men are the worst! Someone’s being kind? Well, they must be attracted to me. You don’t want to date? Well, we can’t be friends.  Look closer, there are so many parameters that contribute to your conclusions, it’s only your current knowledge. What traits of that exe are relevant? Then find a partner that’s different. Maybe that cashier was only doing her job? Does that person, that human, have more worth than you’ve decerned by only looking? We only have part of the picture, yet we make such conclusive statements in our own minds, consciously and subconsciously, that we influence objective analysis, and miss the real truth.
We selectively search for stimulus that agrees with our existing views, because it’s hard to hold multiple perspectives at once, and give each their fair and due process. It’s difficult to accept contrary data, to consider our bias, and much simpler to just deny it, and discredit the source. If anyone ever runs out of valid points, and resorts to aggression or name calling, seeking to discredit, it shows the discussion has deteriorated, they’re out of better reasons, but they still wanna win win win. As if truth and growth and redemption meant nothing.
The pickier we are in life, the less open to its possibilities, and most importantly, to being proven wrong. Let’s be more forgiving, make allowances for better. Going into life with an open-mind and a degree of optimism changes your every day, changes everyone’s outlook, changes the state of society, and tips many interactions, which could go either way, into a positive.
Extremes can be useful in contrasting two sides, revealing pros and cons.  Should schools enforce strict uniforms? Great for revealing a means, and brainstorming, but the answer almost always lies in between the two. And reality isn’t some black and white textbook, we hypothesize and broadcast, making true, what someone else, going in open-minded, finds false.
Life is grey, it has shades, and if you consider more than two sides, there's an abundance of color to be found as well. Remember it’s only the logic and arithmetic of the mind, and our language, that implies such binary, one-sided thinking.
So be open. Be better. As there’s a greater bliss than willful ignorance.