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The life of a revolutionary would be quite impossible without a certain amount of "fatalism."


Now, I have spoken at length previously on my distaste for extremists, so I shall not reopen that wound for all to see (and bore you in the process).

That said, I could pass over the image of the menacing black and yellow Sea Shepherd anarchist AKTION patrol boat parked just across the road from work this morning.

Now – and apologies in advance to all the Sea Shepherds reading out there – every member of that distinguished organisation that I have happened across has turned out to be of a frame of mind that I described in that earlier post.

This tendency to drift into preposterous polarities, mutually exclusive ideas, deterministic dialectics (always hidden, excluding the individual doing the ranting, of course), all of which operate not just separate from, but in opposition to, each other.

This is great fun when you happen to be in the public policy game and are looking to get a little harmony happening on an issue.

They remind me of yet another presentation that I saw the other week, during which I noted the (false) choices that this individual seemed to offer the audience.
Inclusion OR exclusion?
Remembering OR forgetting?
Leading OR following?
Open OR closed?
All OR none?
Want OR need?
Faith OR reason?
Problems OR solution?
Widening OR deepening?
Structure OR agency?
Progress OR tradition?
Success OR Failure?

The saddest thing was that here was a highly educated person (over-educated?), standing there telling everybody that these were mutually exclusive choices. For this person, choosing one meant forgoing the other.

Just what you want to hear at a public policy gabfest!

[Note: and I have to add, calling it the Steve Irwin, nice bit of mainstreaming there! There's hope yet!]
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Comments

blackie said…
I frequently see the same kind of polarities on Oprah. Eg, you can either be a victim OR a survivor. Glad to know I'm not missing out on anything more intelligent in the big wide world.
10 December 2008 at 19:38
Gerald (Ackworth born) said…
I don't know anything about the background to this but yes
Black or White
or how about one of the 16 million shades of grey?

As a schoolboy I always argued about the need to choose Arts or Science but attempts at dispelling the paradox of dichotomy always fell on uncomprehending ears.
11 December 2008 at 04:20
Maria Verivaki said…
my country is so full of black or white people, no wonder anarchy finally reigned
11 December 2008 at 21:34
Kris McCracken said…
Blackie, intelligence seems a rare commodity.

Gerald, only 16 million shades? ;)

Kiwi, what's happening in Athens is generally the outcome of black or white propositions.
12 December 2008 at 14:56
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