The Middle Ground - stuck in the middle with blues

Lest we forget extremist thinking will always seek to keeppeace by quashing critical thought.

The middle ground. What was once a sentiment of impartiality and constructive reasoning is nowadays a mark of cowardice and treason. How dare someone refuse to blindly follow one side to the extreme! Surely if we bully them into choosing, they’ll believe us? This sentiment is dangerous as it’s not only found in politics, but has crept into other aspects of our lives as the truly outspoken try to dictate how we think. Soundbites such as “you can’t play that music, only we can” or “you can’t celebrate this if you’re not part of our culture“ paints the world into black or white corners and serves to discriminate rather than teach.

It may sound strange to correlate the way we push political agenda with cultural bias but it works very much the same. The “us and them” mentality has reached a point where we as a society would rather destroy ourselves than listen to a counter-view and, as this mentality seeps further into our daily lives, we gradually lose the ability to think for ourselves. Middle-ground thinkers are not the enemy, they are the ones who wish to bring about change but not through destroying their enemies. Lest we forget, extremist thinking will always seek to keep peace by quashing critical thought. Being in the middle means, for example, we can appreciate a white man playing blues music while being understanding of the harrowing history which created it, rather than condemning it or being ignorant towards it.

We are at the mercy of the placard wielding banshees...

The beauty of centralised thinking is its grounds for debate and the ability it gives us to take from two differing opinions to create something new. Now, this should not be confused with compromising, where each person sacrifices a belief or action in order to please the other person, but rather taking on board new information and assimilating it into your world view. Unfortunately, when confronted with people whose minds are closed to the non-likeminded, you feel demotivated and disassociated, as if you’re not entitled to see both sides. We are at the mercy of the placard wielding banshees, eager to snap us up before the other ones do.

I can tell you honestly, that even as I write this, I haven’t conveyed my sentiment clearly enough as it is my own world view but that’s okay. If I were to tell you exactly what to think, it would defeat the point of my article. I only wish that people think constructively and do not try to pigeon hole their views into right or left, black or white, for or against. Instead, think about how they can use what has come before them from both sides to enhance their world view. A famous line from Aquaman in an old cartoon series was: “Never trust an amphibian, land or sea pick a side!” I’d say there’s always a boat or a bridge.