The False Dichotomy of Society

 My blog is quite aptly named: a Confused Political Compass. For those of you who don’t know, the image on the right is what a political compass looks like. I’d like to point out the false dichotomy that exists in our world. People get labeled either Republican or Democratic, conservative or liberal, authoritarian or libertarian, communist or capitalist, and so on and so forth. The political compass, however, does a good job of highlighting that these stances are more nuanced than two mutually exclusive ideas. I concede that while it's possible that two people lie in complete opposition of each other in the context of the political compass, say for example someone falls extremely far economic-left and extremely libertarian versus a far economic-right and extremely authoritarian. But again, there’s more nuance to this than those 4 categories. Add in for example liberalism and conservatism, now you’ve got a political cube. Keep adding more and more categorizations and you’re left with higher dimension cubes. As these dimensions rise, it becomes less, and less likely that two people can have exactly opposite stances on an issue. This goes beyond just politics however; it’s impossible for two people to truly be binary opposites. 

Let’s take a look at the characters that were present in “Saving Sourdi.” It appears to be easy to categorize Nea and Sourdi as being binary opposites; likewise categorizing Nea and her mother also as being binary opposites. I forgo the obvious comparisons like Nea and Duke or Sourdi and her mother as it's easy to see their similarities. Starting with Nea and Sourdi. At the start of the short story, Chai describes Sourdi as being a “China doll.” Because of this, Nea feels obligated to be protecting her; contrasting the fragility of Sourdi and the strength of Nea. However, this fragility is juxtaposed with the fact that Sourdi remained silent during that encounter. The strength of Sourdi does not lie in her actions, but her inaction. Similarly, it's easy to find Nea as being fragile. She breaks down in tears after the truth is revealed to her. The dynamic between Nea and Sourdi is not one of binary opposites, but of two people with nuanced differences. Let’s take a look at the dynamic between Nea and her mother. At the start, after Nea stabs the man, the mother knows exactly how to handle the situation; she understands what happened, while Nea gets scolded for “not thinking.” It’s easy to characterize the mother as being rational while Nea as being irrational, however, what happens after the phone call from Sourdi changes that dynamic. Note how the mother says “‘“I’m tired.” Ma rubbed her neck with one hand. “Just let me rest. You girls, it’s always something. Don’t let your old mother rest.”’” This reaction by her is fairly irrational while Nea’s curiosity is rational. What did the mother deem so important to hide that she had to close the door and sidestep Nea’s question when it relates to familial affairs? Again, there’s a more nuanced differentiation between these two characters rather than a dichotomy.

Let’s take a look at yet another example of binary opposites: Creon and Oedipus. It’s easy to see that while Oedipus is brash with his actions, Creon is wise and prudent. However, there’s more to this story than just this play. If we take a look at Sophocles's Antigone, the third chronologically of the Thebian plays,  we can see how the character of Creon evolves. Just like how Oedipus was quick to accuse Teiresias and Creon for being the people that had killed Laius, Creon accuses a guard of burying Antigone’s brother, Polynices. They both commit acts of hubris, deeming themselves as being above God. Oedipus goes against the prophet of the Gods, Teiresias, while Creon goes against Zeus himself. What started out as being a simple literary foil to Oedipus, Creon transforms into Oedipus himself, highlighting his true nature.

This brings us back to my blog: a Confused Political Compass. I thought about doing Biden and Trump, Democrat versus Republican, but that would be far too easy. Regardless of what color shirt they wear, they both, in the end fight for the rich. No matter how much you deny it. Instead, let’s go Sanders and Trump. First of all, they both say “huge” in the exact same way: “yuuuuge.” Don’t believe me? Here: https://youtu.be/vEU40HJGG6k?t=33 (Sanders) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEA33bAXyNM (Trump). In both of these clips, however, we also see another stark similarity between Sanders and Trump, their wacky hand movements. In all seriousness, the platform that a far-left socialist and a far-right fascist capitalist campaign on are quite similar. They both feel angry that the American people aren’t able to achieve the American dream as stated by Bernie in Iowa and Trump on Republican debate. They both are invested into rebuilding American infrastructure, and so on and so forth. Their points and stances are similar, but the way that they plan on accomplishing them are starkly different. Sanders and Trump are not another dichotomy, but yet again, another example of nuanced differentiation. There’s never just two sides to an argument or characteristic; most characters straddle a middle-ground blending the characteristics of both sides.