AT LEAST THREE SIDES
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Few things are binary, like on/off, up/down, left/right, right?
For instance, you can flip a coin – it has two sides, but every situation or problem we encounter is rarely that simple because there are at least three sides every time.
There is always my side, your side, and the side seen only by the objective/non-partisan observer.
And that is ‘in the moment’ as something happens, when something is said (or someone failed to say something), and sometimes that moment is ‘in the heat of that moment’ when more than simple facts or uncomplicated issues are at work. Most of the time, the facts are far from simple, and the issues are entirely complicated. Add another person to the conversation, or leave someone out of the conversation, and things can head ditch-ward in a hurry.
Why?
Because memory is convenient.
I remember what is convenient for me to recall, leave out or minimizing the importance of other elements in the situation – either because I have blind-spot/scotoma about them, of because I choose to be in denial about the point, or the issue, or the approach to solving a problem. The same is true of my counterpart in our interaction because they remember the chosen parts of their role and reaction in the conversation. It’s not always difficult, and sometimes it’s downright delightful, but the illusion of fairness or balance in viewpoints is just that, an illusion.
And reviewing things like this in retrospect gets worse the more time passes – because the omitted quickly becomes the forgotten entirely, and our firm positions become set in concrete more firmly with every passing day or week.
Reader feedback:
O don’t trust any government or political party or politician until they show me they are trustworthy (say, make a tough, probably unpopular decision). Lately I’ve seen very little of this, and, if others agree, who is left to vote for. I’m not holding my breath, but the whole political system needs a complete overhaul so we are left with a choice of at least 2 candidates we think could and would do a good job. LH – Lethbridge, AB
Great article on WE Mark. Whatever happened to Trudeau’s election platform of honest, open government, and complete transparency? I suspect our federal government was hoping all the chaos south of us would drown out the corruption in our own country. Trudeau has taken a page from the Trump administration - deny, deny, and distract. An apology separates their reaction to an outing. An apology, after being caught. An apology from our government appears to be all that’s needed, from their perspective, to forgive, forget and move forward. This from a minority government no less - how vain and entitled. The opposition and journalists should keep digging deeper. Keep up the good work. We each need to write our MP, RT, White Rock, BC
|
|
|