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This is http://www.essayz.com/a9604152.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %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) ==========================================================