orld history has again reached a dangerous tipping-point, precariously poised over the abyss of Armageddon. However, from a historical perspective, it’s also showing some potential for a new unified worldview, and the possibility of a more orderly & peaceful future. From a philosophical point-of-view, I think the current “Mexican stand-off” in politics & religion results from a few extremists on left & right imposing their adamant Either/Or worldviews upon the more moderate masses, with the effect of almost eliminating the middle ground of peace & harmony. So, my proposed solution to the polarization problem is to adopt a moderate & inclusive Both/And attitude toward the world and its vicissitudes. In this initial blog I will define the concept of BothAnd. Then in subsequent issues, I'll discuss a variety of related topics, Some may be adapted from posts on internet forums, and some may be direct responses to comments on previous articles. Be warned : these articles are not twitter feeds, and some are very long, complex, cross-referenced, footnoted, and full of technical terminology. The ecumenical compromising attitude of these blogs will elicit angry responses from unforgiving extremist black & white hardliners, but may appeal to those of more modest & humble dispositions, who are not expecting the ultimate Truth, and will accept a few feeble attempts to get closer to mundane truths about the big questions of “God, The Universe, and Everything”.

In the first Matrix movie, Morpheus offered Neo a choice between the Red Pill of fact (ugly reality in the underworld of Zion), or the Blue Pill of fiction (the illusion of normality in the computerized world created by the Matrix machines). But in the nonfiction world, we may not have to make such a difficult decision, since the human mind is capable of dealing with both empirical reality and intangible imagination. In fact, most people do indeed manage to hold both idealistic worldviews (religious myths, romantic stories, hypothetical conjectures) and pragmatic views (technical knowledge, scientific models of reality), although in discrete mental compartments. So in order to understand the whole truth of our existence, we need to look at both sides of every polarized worldview. In the non-fiction world, we don’t always have to choose either Good or Evil, but we can look for a moderate position near the Golden Mean, the sweet spot I call BothAnd.

____________ Gnomon

The BothAnd Motto :

To paraphrase Socrates, “All I know is that I know nothing” for sure.  We may think we know a lot, but much of our personal knowledge consists of learned conventions, knee-jerk prejudices, us-them biases, & un-verified assumptions: and when we think we are reasoning, we are merely rearranging our prejudices.

The Matrix Movie :

A 1999 sci-fi film based on the philosophical paradox of objective Reality versus subjective Ideality. The “real” world is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with a remnant of humans able to live only deep underground. But most humans are kept in a coma state, and fed an illusory computer model resembling the “normal” world before the robotic revolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix

Mexican Standoff :

A confrontation between two or more parties in which no participant can proceed or retreat without being exposed to danger. As a result, all participants need to maintain the strategic tension, which remains unresolved until some outside event makes it possible to resolve it. In international affairs, it’s a cold war. In politics, it’s gridlock.  

Gnomon :

A screenname associated with an avatar portraying the gnomic spiral of a Nautilus shell. Derived from Greek, “one who knows”, denoting wisdom and experience. It’s an aspiration, not a boast.

See glossary for more implications. . . .

Golden Mean :

Aristotle’s ancient argument for “moderation in all things” assumed that the best compromise between conflicting forces is in the Goldilocks zone of “not too hot and not too cold, but just right”.

See Glossary for more detail.

Both/And Principle :

My coinage for the holistic principle of Complementarity, as illustrated in the Yin/Yang symbol. Opposing or contrasting concepts are always part of a greater whole. Conflicts are reconciled or harmonized by adjusting yinyang proportions to find the balance point of the whole system.  See glossary

Either/Or Fallacy :

False Dilemma. (also known as: all-or-nothing fallacy, false dichotomy, black-and-white thinking, excluded middle, no middle ground, polarization). This is the “either you’re with me or you’re against me” attitude of radicals and extremists. But it dismisses the validity of Moderation.

See Golden Mean below

Enformationism

Enformity

Forum

Glossary

Yes, This is a philosophical blog; which means that it’s a bunch of BS. But it’s a sincere search for pearls of wisdom hidden within the awful offal. And it doesn’t take itself too seriously.