I was listening to a pod cast today that was interviewing Dr Jordan Peterson. No matter what the topic, whether it is about his new book or not, the subject always goes to the battle of ideologies and the dualism that we are facing in the political and social world.
Listening to the pod cast an image kept coming into my head. Unfortunately, I do not have an artistic hand so I can't reproduce this image physically but I will try to describe this image so you see where I am coming from.
We are living in a very interesting world right now. Almost every country is facing some form of extremism. But in this image I will focus on the extreme sides of Right and Left spectrum.
As you look at the image, there is a large group of people. All types of people. Men and woman of different cultures and colours, religious ideals and sexual orientation. In the centre you see a smaller group that are speaking and discussing with kindness and understanding of each other and their view points. There is no need to label each other with differences, no need to marginalize the person you are speaking with. Each person knows that they step back and forth of the centre line depending on the idea and issue.
Going to the right of the image you start to see a few more rigid ideologies and believes. Trying to hold on to traditions but willing to listen and learn a bit about the traditions of others . There is still no hate, just a bit of suspicion of something that is different than ones own.
The farther we go to the right of the image, this suspicion turns to fear and hate. This is where we start to see images of Neo Nazi symbols, KKK, ISIS and people who fight hard to keep what they know as the present and the future at the cost of others who are different than them in any way. This far right is all facing the centre with anger and malice. Willing to kill for the cause.
Going to the left we see more diverse opinions being spoken and listened to, allowing people to be who they are no matter the current cultural ideals. Making sure everyone is included and fairly. People are learning from each other, but a distain of those who are not willing to accept others differences.
The Far Left start to want to force equality, even to the detriment of those who they are trying to fight for. You start to see Che Guevera on T-shirts and Marxist symbols. Grouping / tribalism starts to occur, almost to the same degree as the Far Right does. Anger becomes the norm, everything that seems unfair is to be fought and made right.
Name calling is used by both sides, hate speech is thrown from both sides, whether they see it or not through the hatred and anger they have.
In the image, each side is staring each other down, ready to trample down those in the middle who have not negative feelings towards either side. They are ready to fight to the death for this extreme ideals in the belief they are right and anyone who is slightly different are nothing but the other side.
I am interested in what others think on this. It concerns me and I hope that neither side wins.