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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] A Study in Gray
  • Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:54:45 EDT



> You're reality may be made of absolutes but mine is not. There are no
> absolutes in my world, not one, everything is a shade of gray.
>


A view that *everything* is in shades of gray is a far more narrow view than
even a view that things must be black or white. At least with black and
white there are two things to be considered. With the 'Everything is Gray'
view,
there is only one category, one (or no) discrimination to be made.
Everything
is gray, even if it is black and white it is still gray.

'Aboslute' (like 'perfect') is a philosophical term. When I say that my
jeans are black, I do not mean some theoretical perfect black, absorbs all
light,
black beyond black worlds without end, amen. And when I say the T-shirt is
white, I do not mean blazing, blinding pure white. But the jeans aren't
gray
and neither is the shirt. If we want to say that the jeans really ARE gray
because there is no such thing as pefect black, it is just as utterly useless
a
designation as saying that everything is black or white. There are gray
jeans
and grey shirts but there are also black and white ones as well.

The 'Everything is Gray' argument is, as I have observed, almost always
employed when someone wants to explain something away that the earnestly wish
wasn't true, although it obviously is. 99% works really well for me.
Something
that appears as black 99% of the time is black as far as my decision making
goes. When I run into the 1% that isn't black, I will make adjustments for
that
one abberation. Or else it will catch me unawares to my disadvantage. But
the
odds are in my favor.

What happens, as I have observed, is that someone doesn't want this something
to be black 99% of the time. It isn't up for discussion as to whether it
will occur or appear black that often, they know one time it wasn't black.
One
time. And so it's iffy, it's not *always* black. Since I know of ONE
incident
where it was not black, then it's a 50-50 propostion. It's either black or
it's not, one or the other of the two, 50-50, and that makes it gray. After
all, we know that if we mix black and white 50-50, we get gray. So, ergo,
everything is gray.

If you were bitten by a rabid animal, you know you won't necessarily get
rabies. And even if you do get rabies, do you know there was one person two
years
ago who got rabies and didn't die? The first one known to have survived it
(under a rather ingenious medical treatment that slowed her nerves to the
point
that the vaccine acted more quickly than the virus). So it's really shades
of gray, isn't it. No absolutes.

So if you are bitten by a rabid animal, knowing that it isn't absolutely
black and white, how will you act? Let me suggest: You will act as if it
is
absolutely black. You will get the gamaglobulin and the vaccine. That
'there
are no absolutes in my life' would go out the window in heartbeat.

In "my" reality, I can't dismiss things I would prefer not be true by saying
that after all, *everything* is a shade of gray. No body really believes
that
and certainly no one acts on that belief.

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