So, we've all heard various ways of breaking down human personalities into their base types.. One of those would be the "I see it in black or white" people and the other is capable of seeing all the shades of grey. It's generally accepted that the people who see things in terms of black and white take action and get things done. They believe they have the moral high ground, they are good, the enemy is evil, blah blah blah, and then the other guy, the guy who sees greys flounders when he should be making his move and says "Oh.. geee.. I don't know.. they both have a point.. say.. maybe we're the evil ones.. oh, I don't know if good and evil exist.." tra la and so on.
From my personal experience the black and white people (B&Ws) are generally wrong, and as the greys are mostly undecided.. well, they can't exactly be wrong.. or can they.. oh gee.. I don't know
Anyway, hold that idea in your mind while we go on a little tangent. The behaviour I'm about to describe may shock you.. may be frightfully familiar, may be the behaviour of someone close to you, maybe someone you've known for a looong time. In all likelyhood you've stood looking at some object, maybe a piece of luxury food like a mango or one of those pear/apple hybrids and thought "Gee, nobody's looking, maybe I ought to slip this in my pocket and be off." Then, the moment before the potential deed is commited, you look towards your belief structure for guidance. Maybe you believe there will be karmic retribution, maybe you believe in pure distilled prudence and caution, or maybe you've only got one life to live, so you better give 'er every chance you got..
Whatever the case, the point I'm making is that to rationalize any action you need to invoke the almight grand theory of the universe. Every tiny action, stepping on a bug, whatever, is ultimately done or not depending on how you see your life and how it fits in with the huge cosmic plan or lack thereof.
Once we accept that this is true, then we wheel on back to the B&W model where we'll combine these two ideas into a briefly appreciable but hopefully satisfying idea. Follow this:
So, the B&W person has this view of the universe. Let's say the view is that there is only one true God. Everywhere around him there is evidence to the contrary. Dwayne, the example living down the street, worships a different God. This grinds against B&W's point of view, so he has to constantly patch up his belief system with ideas that ultimately result in the hatred of Dwayne. One day Dwayne goes too far, and he puts up a statue of his false God up in the driveway. Our simpleminded B&W friend needs to eradicate this threat to his flawed belief system.
But how can he rationalize this behaviour? Ah, well, unlucky for dwayne, B&W's black and white view of things allows him to destroy non-believers with a clean conscience. The cycle is complete.
Basically, what I've taken too long to point out is that there are belief systems that promote one view of things through their simplicity (B&W), and when this view is challenged, and it constantly is by every facet of the universe, the belief system, because it gives the user the ability to take strong action thanks to the built-in moral high ground, eradicates challenges to itself. Neat eh? A belief system full of weapons and a nice little pill to help you sleep at night.
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I respect the type of person that is neither B&W nor grey, but has a point of view and lives life according to it, while realizing all the while that he "could" be wrong.
-------------------- The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. -Teilard
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What is a "tangerine" type person?
Maybe you should PM me...
-------------------- The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. -Teilard
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