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    %FALSE DICHOTOMY EXTREME LOGIC EITHER ONE OTHER 960415

     People often promote false dichotomies,  extremes and
logic---in efforts to control the conclusions which others
arrive at.

     We are invited,  urged, or coerced into thinking that
the  choice to be is made is between one alternative---and
an  opposite  alternative;   and that nothing else may  be
considered.

     Then  we are asked to acknowledge that one  of  those
two exclusive alternatives is clearly not defensible.

     Finally  we  are  asked  to  conclude  that  only the
remaining one of the two exclusive alternatives is the one
we   must   choose----because  there  remains   no   other
alternatives which is defensible.

     The whole process  is coercive,  violent  and without
merit.  Only fools respect it.

     Virtually never  in  life are there only two possible
alternatives to choose  between.    It  is  dishonest  and
disintegrative  to pretend,  think and/or claim otherwise.
Many  of  alternatives  may  be  unacceptable   at   first
consideration---but  they may in fact  be  more acceptable
than we imagine at first consideration.

     Many of the alternatives  which we are invited, urged
or coerced  to regard as "best"  have  disadvantages which
are   not   acknowledged  by   simple-minded   dichotomous
thinkers.     Such   "thinkers"    discourage   thoughtful
reflection,   meditation,  and prayer.    They  discourage
creative thought which they cannot  control.   They do not
tolerate independent and  self-reliant  people  whom  they
cannot  control.    They  do not  respect  other  people's
desires. They often try  to make people believe that their
own honestly  felt  desires are not reliable and should be
distrusted.

     People who  promote false  dichotomies,  extremes and
logic---in efforts to control the conclusions which others
arrive  at---are  often people who seek to make  it appear
that the  choice  is between the utter chaos  of  hedonism
which is guided only  by  selfish  desires;   and the well
ordered  community  which is guided by  idealistic  rules,
regulations and rulers. They discourage any  thought about
alternatives  which  entail due respect for  all  people's
diverse  desires  and  due respect  for  widely  supported
prudent  laws  which  are  duly adopted and  published  by
democratically elected legislatures.

     Wise  choices  cannot  be made when  the  freedom  to
choose is falsely  limited to two dichotomous alternatives
and  so  there is  the  exclusion  of   a  wide  range  of
reasonable possibilities.   It is wise to be suspicious of
every  situation  in  which we are  encouraged  to  choose
between just  two alternatives.   The people who encourage
us  to  choose between just two alternatives are  probably
coercive fools. We will be fools with them if we join them
in  their  foolish patterns of assumptions,   thought  and
violence.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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