One striking feature in discussions and debate everywhere is binary thinking that doggedly uses terminology such as 'Left-Right', 'West-East', 'Conservative-Liberal', 'Religious-Secular', etc. to define and describe an inherently complex and non-linear world.

My question to all is - where does this obsession with binary categorisation come from?

Ev

Have wondered the same myself. How about adding "either/or" as in 'either coal or nuclear' or 'either homosexual or straight'.

There is always room for taking a bit of the best of everything, but that never seems to happen. I mean, I understand the human predilection for labels - helps us to think. But yeah, why the binary approach when the spectrum of human development and ideas is far broader and overlapping.

Ev, it is a primitive control mechanism, used by almost everyone who has ever chosen to acquire power.

If you ever intend to take over the world Ev, bear this in mind. You need to clearly define an enemy in order to get people to fight on your side - it is not sufficient just to have "this what I stand for", you must also have a far stronger "this is what I am against".

I subscribe to the multiple positions approach, but try having a political discussion without resorting to labels like "left" and "right". No matter how much I lecture university students that the old labels mean nothing, I still can't shake the habit - which suggests it is not so much a habit, but a structural necessity when it comes to argument.

Sure, what is called 'Linguistic determinism' plays a part. But there's more of course.

Fuzzy logic expert Professor Bart Kosko wrote a great book called 'Fuzzy Thinking' on this topic. Amazon books has a the first six pages online. I think it's worth having a look:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/078688021X/ref=sib_dp_top_ex/002-2520523-1704054?ie=UTF8&p=S00L#reader-link

Professor Kosko's homepage, which has a number of interesting articles:

http://sipi.usc.edu/~kosko/

Computers work on binary maths i.e the positive and negative in our lives to give us answers.In any family situation we will find the positive and negative aspects in our personalities being used to bring out the best in individuals.There are no hard and fast rules since it takes the wisdom of Solomon to know when to chastise amd when to reward.There are some personalities who thrive on the challenge and others who need a lot of nurturing.Too much leftism or rightism in any given situation depends upon the environment and the personalities of the individuals.

When the survival of the whole community is at stake,we have to take the courageous path of the right,some may fall by the wayside,but in the end,only the fittest will survive.