Wednesday 2 June 2010

Thinking aloud: Grey is the new black and white.

Please forgive this post it's not fully formed I'm thinking aloud and not targeting anyone in particular sometimes you don't know what you think until you say it to someone else.
It's just that I'm just getting bored with the "black and white" world we live in (especially on the web) . Everyday people espouse extreme views with certainty and vehemence on everything from the middle east, government sleaze, daily mail columnists to Britain's got talent contestants. I've seen Israeli soldiers described as "stormtroopers", BP the worst firm in the world and Bono an international plague worse than small pox. I'm not saying there aren't any moral absolutes in the world but we live in a complex world where few things are perfectly clear and many of the problems we face are very very complex. It would be an easy life if Israel was really totally beyond  the pale, that oil companies venal scum with no role in the modern world etc.

For example sorting out the mess of economy  looks like it will take a whole series of complex and tricky decisions over  the next years; which will involve loss of services AND jobs, more taxes etc none of which will be pleasant and many of us will get the sh*tty end of the stick. But making broad brush generalisations won't help. This isn't to let anyone off the hook and to fall for any soft soap from David Cameron etc but some honesty from everyone would help us all.

Also I'm all for enthusiasm and the dramatic statement but maybe if they are used more sparingly they will have more impact ... so may be just maybe  we can avoid in the space of a few moments saying Simon Cowell , Willie Walsh and Israeli foreign minister are all the worst people in the world!

1 comment:

Cocktails said...

It's funny isn't it, because usually as you get older your formerly black and white views turn into shades of grey. I think we're all just looking for easy answers and inflamatory headlines sadly.