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This is exactly right. Why do people corner themselves into mutually exclusive, absolute truths, with absolutely no room for compromise? It just doesn't make an

by gxs 13y ago

This is exactly right. Why do people corner themselves into mutually exclusive, absolute truths, with absolutely no room for compromise? It just doesn't make any sense. When I was in 4th grade I wrote a country report on the US. When I got to the economics portion of the encyclopedia, I still remember the opening line.. "The United States is a mixed economy operating predominantly under capitalistic principles.." Why settle for one when you pick the best from both worlds? Unbelievable how much this affects people's lives..you can ONLY like Go or C++..you can ONLY like Apple OR non apple products..you either watch Art House Cinema or you watch Hollywood blockbusters, absolutely not allowed to watch both..you're either 100% capitalist or 100% socialist. The idea of the "truth lies somewhere in the middle" is at least as old as the Greeks (that quote was attributed to Aristotle when I first read it), and yet every single day, the same people regurgitate the same tired arguments to the point that I'm starting to sound like a broken record myself in response.

jjoonathan 13y ago
It's not just the encyclopedia entry on the US. In "The Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith himself argues that the market isn't suited to some economic sectors. I believe his examples were infrastructure, police, fire, and military, but education and health care wouldn't exactly be outliers and I'm sure if he were alive today he'd give the arguments for a single-payer system due consideration.
TallGuyShort 13y ago
To answer the question, "why do people corner themselves?", I think it's because there is value in categorizing things. Unfortunately, this will eventually introduce negative consequences as well, as you describe. It's like the difference between voting for a candidate or party vs. voting on individual issues. Sadly, I think it is the nature of populations and the growing nature of our digitized world to clump ourselves into groups.
araes 13y ago
This has a lot in common with the "Being Alone" topic that's trending on HN right now. Being alone fills you with anxiety, with isolation, and with uncertainty. By establishing hard lines, and an aggressive stance, you align yourself with a group and gain peers. You have allies, friends, and a social tribe that you can look out on the world with. Your anxiety lessens and you feel more secure. I'm not sure if we're hardwired for it, but we as humans have a strong tendency towards categorization and "ingroup" / "outgroup" classification of our peers. There's a deep rabbit hole at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety/uncertainty_management http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety/uncertainty_management Particularly relevant: "Axiom 20: An increase in perceiving that we share superordinate ingroup identities with strangers will produce a decrease in our anxiety and an increase in our ability to predict their behavior accurately."

by gxs 13y ago

jjoonathan 13y ago

It's not just the encyclopedia entry on the US. In "The Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith himself argues that the market isn't suited to some economic sectors. I believe his examples were infrastructure, police, fire, and military, but education and health care wouldn't exactly be outliers and I'm sure if he were alive today he'd give the arguments for a single-payer system due consideration.

TallGuyShort 13y ago

To answer the question, "why do people corner themselves?", I think it's because there is value in categorizing things. Unfortunately, this will eventually introduce negative consequences as well, as you describe. It's like the difference between voting for a candidate or party vs. voting on individual issues. Sadly, I think it is the nature of populations and the growing nature of our digitized world to clump ourselves into groups.

araes 13y ago

This has a lot in common with the "Being Alone" topic that's trending on HN right now. Being alone fills you with anxiety, with isolation, and with uncertainty. By establishing hard lines, and an aggressive stance, you align yourself with a group and gain peers. You have allies, friends, and a social tribe that you can look out on the world with. Your anxiety lessens and you feel more secure. I'm not sure if we're hardwired for it, but we as humans have a strong tendency towards categorization and "ingroup" / "outgroup" classification of our peers. There's a deep rabbit hole at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety/uncertainty_management http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety/uncertainty_management Particularly relevant: "Axiom 20: An increase in perceiving that we share superordinate ingroup identities with strangers will produce a decrease in our anxiety and an increase in our ability to predict their behavior accurately."