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Paradigm Thought Shift From Binary to Spectrum [1]

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Date: 2023-08-11

I had thought. Maybe even an idea. I doubt if it's original and probably not that good. But I'm just discovering both how helpful writing can be for me internally, and that I can actually muster up the courage to do so, so bear with me as I try to figure this keyboarding thing out. Thanks!

I'm an old white dude, a gen-Xer in his fifties and I remember actually being bored with the whole world back in the 1990's. We were chronically bored and did anything we could to shake it off. For my part, I went on tour with Grateful Dead and did all the things deadheads do be doin' still to this day. But I can't really ride that ride anymore. Even if I buy the ticket. The world seems so strangely off putting at times, I think I'd rather just sit it out. Yeah, it's partly because I'm old and as Marc Maron once said "My demons are tired." Looking back in the rear view mirror from today, all that boredom was beautiful. Fucking BEAUTIFUL! So I asked myself, as cannabis enthusiasts are prone to do; I asked myself, "Self, what the hell happened?"

The first thoughts are just current events and whatnot. And we got hit with some big ones for sure. We got slapped around by the W Bush Supreme Court election override, 911, Gitmo, and the Iraq war. We were told to live in fear and buy duct tape. Yeah, duct tape. Then they tried to break us for having the audacity to elect a black guy and they upped the fear mongering to 11, with the threat of "Death Panels!" While this was all going down, we were so busy changing our drawers from having had the collective crap scared out of us by Fox News and the GOP, the MAGA beast was left incubating in the womb of fear itself. With the help of Russia and a dash of Comey on the side, the former guy wriggled out of the shadows and unleashed a wave of madness and morons upon the land that culminated in the Planet of the Apes cosplay coup of January 6. Throw into the mix throughout all this chaos, the dawn of the digital age, all the changes it spawned and is still, delivering. Oh yeah, and there was this whole pandemic that killed millions. The one that people want you to believe wasn't real. Also, climate change will destroy us. Nature always wins. And like 7 people have all the cash. You can surely add to this list of depressing happenings, but I don't recommend it. No need to flog yourself.

All these things sucked, and still suck, big time. But as author John Beckett points out, history is full of worse moments. Bigger plagues, deadlier wars, famines, and dictators that make our festering fellow look like a moderate Republican. Just kidding, there's no such thing as a moderate Republican. So, if the world has suffered through worse and our forebears survived harsher days, why the massive freak out? I live as good or better, more comfortable, healthier life than any one of my ancestors and I reckon most all of you reading this do as well. Yet as I sit here, half the country is apparently losing their shit over conspiracies and fever dreams about Satanic pizza parlors selling children with the help of Tom Hanks or something. I don't know what the flavor of fear du jour is, I don't bother to keep up. But that's it. A Fear. A fear of something is the engine driving this lousy ride.

The fear of the loss of power. The fear of others, the different, the diverse. The fear of change and having to tolerate that ideas and ways of thinking that weren't so present in the recent past are here with us now. Fair enough, but let's look closer still, what’s the thread that weaves through the heart and mind of society these days that’s causing such a ruckus? I offer to you an idea that the age of binary thinking itself is fallen and the onset of spectrum thinking is here. And it's scaring people as they are nudged out of their comfort zones.

No longer is there just a binary set of gender realities. There's more than just man and woman and roles have been rearranged. Sexual identities have greatly expanded and likely may continue to do so. We recognize an array of beautiful people who are no longer willing to repress who they are and finally have the means for self expression at last. Yet their trials are still before them and we must see them through, lest history find us a failure. In the realm of spirituality, like that storm-footed Goddess of the rainbow, Iris, the spectrum of thought is making itself seen there as well. No longer does the the binary choice of god/devil, heaven/hell, good/bad, pick a side and accept a savior, get the final word. Polytheists, Pagans, Witches, Druids, Hellenic Reconstructionists, the list goes on, they are all finding their footing amongst a world long beholden to the binary thinking of western society indoctrinated in Abrahamic philosophy. We are realizing that the old experiment to find the common denominator among religions is no longer helpful, as it erodes our cultural significance and we need to accept and embrace that we are different and diverse. There is no fair and balanced, two sides to every coin. Everything flows fractal-like, in gradations and each step is beautiful and unique. Like I said, I'm an old white guy. I'm not you and you aren’t me, we are different in many ways. But I can see you as my equal and as who you are without expecting you to conform to any cultural boundaries that do not serve you. Diversity is a powerful and beautiful thing. Humanity is what we have in common and if that’s not enough to respect one another as equals, then dude, we can't hang out. It's a truth I tend to hold as self evident.

Well that’s the thought. There was a fundamental shift in thinking somewhere and it affects everybody a little differently. A lot of people are scared by having to accept those who are different in someway, those who think different, and hold different values and aspirations. A lot of people are open to greet a new day. But it looks like we have to get through this raging storm before the rainbow shines for us all.



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