Vishnu’s tug of war of angels and demons Quite often, in opposing convictions and dispute, the two sides facing embrace extremes. Unique, exclusive ideas show their teeth. Absolutes and superlatives fuse inevitably: always, never, all, everything, nothing, nobody, greatest, best, worst and so on.
Yet, according to common sense which you can check, opposite extremes are quite certain to be equally wrong. In the same vein, the superlatives and absolutes correspond to nothing real, they are exaggerations, accusations, flatteries, naive simplifications or plain lies. In the extreme, they are fanaticism.
Therefore, avoid being tossed on this side or on that. Do not take position in a corner. Chase away exaggeration from your language.
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"Being for" or "being against" opposite positions, is being an object used by somebody else, not a person. A reasonable, open mind contains and considers in parallel, more than one point of view instead of getting stuck inside just one; particularly not inside the aggressive poverty of one extreme.
When you see people out in the streets breaking and burning in honest protest against some evil, you can bet that they are not on the right side either.
Show listening, authentic respect, sympathy or even support to people firmly convinced but do not hurry to say "You are right. I engage!" Keep steadily reserved, give yourself time so that you can reflect and adjust. Additionally, if you kept at a distance you could later be the arbiter between sides instead of a party judged. If you cannot observe this attitude you cannot be a leader of people.
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In every matter the fools will instinctively take the other extreme to oppose this one, so that they are unknowingly certain to be no better. You can even ruse the adversary blockhead into error by pretending to hold up an extreme, so that he will ram into the other. That will be easy to refute.
Let your extreme be the middle way. It is the millennia tested path of wisdom. Let your excess be honest, steady, constructive moderation and measure; even in the face of much darker daily reality seeming to be just black and white.
Let moderation be your habit, old fashioned and foreseeable. That will not hurt you but serve you well to keep close to truth and likely to have a better life.
Yet, according to common sense which you can check, opposite extremes are quite certain to be equally wrong. In the same vein, the superlatives and absolutes correspond to nothing real, they are exaggerations, accusations, flatteries, naive simplifications or plain lies. In the extreme, they are fanaticism.
Therefore, avoid being tossed on this side or on that. Do not take position in a corner. Chase away exaggeration from your language.
*
"Being for" or "being against" opposite positions, is being an object used by somebody else, not a person. A reasonable, open mind contains and considers in parallel, more than one point of view instead of getting stuck inside just one; particularly not inside the aggressive poverty of one extreme.
When you see people out in the streets breaking and burning in honest protest against some evil, you can bet that they are not on the right side either.
Show listening, authentic respect, sympathy or even support to people firmly convinced but do not hurry to say "You are right. I engage!" Keep steadily reserved, give yourself time so that you can reflect and adjust. Additionally, if you kept at a distance you could later be the arbiter between sides instead of a party judged. If you cannot observe this attitude you cannot be a leader of people.
*
In every matter the fools will instinctively take the other extreme to oppose this one, so that they are unknowingly certain to be no better. You can even ruse the adversary blockhead into error by pretending to hold up an extreme, so that he will ram into the other. That will be easy to refute.
Let your extreme be the middle way. It is the millennia tested path of wisdom. Let your excess be honest, steady, constructive moderation and measure; even in the face of much darker daily reality seeming to be just black and white.
Let moderation be your habit, old fashioned and foreseeable. That will not hurt you but serve you well to keep close to truth and likely to have a better life.
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