Our political discourse

I know my last post was pretty serious, because it's a serious matter that's not being covered properly by the media, but here's an example of a more general kind of problem. This is an actual headline on USAToday.com:

Gay marriage advances: Overdue justice or 

moral chaos?

Are those really the only two options? How about 

Driving to Work: Safe and On-Time or Fatal Multi-car Accident?

Dinnertime: Delicious and Nourishing or Deadly Poison?

Football Game Score: 287 - 286 or 0-0?

Sitting in your chair: Reading a book or spontaneous combustion?

I know someone who is what might be called a black and white thinker. This means that whatever happens is either great or horrible. Nothing is just okay. I don't think that this is a calming way of approaching life, in fact if those were the only 2 alternatives I'd be a nervous wreck. Every decision is between spectacular success or absolute disaster, so how do you get through the day?

Personally, I think there are very few absolutes. Even the commandment about not killing can be mitigated in cases of self-defense. (A side note, and this is not my original observation, if one of the commandments is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," isn't the killing one kind of redundant?). The lack of absolutes doesn't prevent me from having a clear cut moral code, but it does require that I put a bit of thought into which side of the line things fall.

Whoever wrote that headline, and it doesn't matter because this is just one of many examples, is engaging in sloppy, facile thinking in every way. Aside from the black-and-whiteness of the thought, is it really a choice between overdue justice and moral chaos? Is it not possible to have both? You don't have to look much further than the headlines coming out of Libya or Egypt to see that it's entirely possible for overdue justice and moral chaos to coexist.

Again, I don't want to pick on this poor writer, even though that is exactly what she is, but the problem isn't the headline; it's the false choice it presents. I feel like this kind of discourse is damaging to out being able to cooperate and make wise decisions about major issues. The gay marriage issue is a deeply felt one, not one that lends itself to simplistic so-called analysis, and most of the biggest questions we face are not stark, clear choices. If they were, we wouldn't be agonizing over them.