The Binary World

I was reading a newspaper article the other day when something struck me. I skim-read a few more opinion pieces and political reports and a thought struck me and took me to a whole new “two cup of coffee” thought train. The world is becoming more binary, and it’s gathering pace. It’s a little bit unsettling, especially when consensus building is so needed.

There were whole divisions of the world evident in just one skim of the newspaper, references to; third world vs first world, right wing vs left wing, men vs women, the vaccinated and anti-vaxers, rich and poor, young and old (labels such as millennials or baby boomers and all the inferences and prejudices that go with the labels). There were divisive references to climate change, again with inferences subtly disguised, and references to ‘cultures’ such as ‘incel culture’ or ‘cancel culture’. This was one newspaper!

Over the past few years there have also been almost tectonic dividing lines such as Brexit vs remain, or Trump vs well, anybody who isn’t Trump (or one of his supporters). But there is something more disturbing than just dividing lines of opinion. Basil Bernstein offered some explanations to “in-group and out-group” alignment through linguistics or “in-group argot”. We seem ever increasingly willing and eager to put ourselves in in-groups of various descriptions.

This is where the binary outlook becomes disturbing. When the in-group argot becomes unrestrained or abusive, there is an inherent assumption that the out-group is somehow lesser. The freedom and anonymity of the internet and social media is instrumental in this drift into “zero sum thinking”.

The lack of trying to understand what drives people to take a position is a problem with no resolution. This thinking is lazy thinking. It’s zero-sum thinking. In this line of thinking, of either “with us or agin us”, this makes “enemies” of too many people. It’s maybe not beliefs we should be interested in, but why we might hold these beliefs. There seems to be no space on the internet to “show our workings”.

There’s a lot of faulty logic about, and reading unrestrained in-group rhetoric on internet echo chambers both reinforces and polarises views. This zero-sum, binary logic ultimately leads to a lack of empathy, an inability to agree to disagree. An unwillingness to put yourself in another’s shoes. This can't be helpful in our current reality.

We are facing a triple whammy (at least) in existential crises. The emergence of a stubborn and destructive pandemic disease, the fairly undisputable reality that we are rapidly driving the planet towards being uninhabitable for the majority of species of animals including ourselves, and the ever-increasing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” as a result of unrestrained and unethical capitalism.

In the modern world, we have become more interdependent than ever. Goods and labour, education and medicine, food and power, have all become global infrastructures. The only way to solve global existential problems is by collaboration, not isolation. Acting as if crises in developing countries are somehow less of a priority and not working together to provide medical support or aid, will allow diseases to mutate and become more deadly. Without mobile labour forces, food production will become extremely difficult in many parts of the world. Without exploitation, the raw materials for things we take for granted; our mobile phones for example, would become more expensive and we would need to keep them longer. The list of interdependences could go on and on.

Whether we like it or not, we are global. Isolationism is a blade so sharp we will cut ourselves on it. I for one, intend to try to catch myself out when binary thinking creeps up on me. I don’t agree with everyone, but that doesn’t make me right and them wrong, it doesn’t make them any stupider than me, or any smarter; it just means that we hold different perspectives. We need more than ever to “walk a mile in another person’s shoes” if we are to get a working understanding of how to avoid extinction.

Isolation has been even more amplified by Covid. As our outward relationships fade, our focus becomes inward. After all it has to point somewhere! We start to lose touch with the current reality of our colleagues and our in-group shrinks, eventually to one. Empathy and fellowship suffer, and before we notice, our current reality becomes very different. The short answer is better relationships.

So how does this connect to my working life? Well, just recently I've been working with an organisation with some significant challenges. it is an organisation set up by a founder (now departed) that is fuelled by relationships. Subsequent development of the organisation has resulted in a gradual direction of travel towards a systems-based structure, but without a central person maintaining the relationships. As a result, everyone has become disconnected from each other and the founding vision is becoming lost.

I guess the feeling that I had over my two cups of coffee, is that we really need to see that similarities are more important to our effectiveness than our differences, and that I would personally be more careful about binary thinking. I'm looking for somebody else’s shoes, preferably in a size 9.