grey matters

a love letter to ambiguity and equivocation

For a medium that, some days anyway, seems to be powered by irony, the internet’s ability to foster and facilitate the exchange of black | white thinking is nothing short of staggering.

I suppose one could argue it’s an inevitable byproduct of a platform that perpetuates the reinforcement of basic principles. It’s easier to seek out likeminded points of view when arguments are simple and without nuance.

It’s also likely a reflection of the culture of linkbaitery that followed in the wake of the rapid democratization of publishing and dissemination of content. Buzzfeed lists and Upworthy shares would lose some of their effectiveness with headlines like “a moderately funny thing you can see today” or “if you relate to these images you might have grown up in the 1990s (or you might have otherwise been exposed to 1990s pop culture icons).”

For someone who spends a lot of time scrolling through Twitter timelines, the phenomenon of absolutism is even more pronounced. 140 characters doesn’t leave a lot of room for context or complex arguments.

So with those caveats in place, I’ve likely equivocated enough now to say that I’m not comfortable with unequivocal rhetoric.

Because grey is fucking beautiful, man. Grey is where you can let your guard down a bit and concede that nobody is 100% wrong or right. You can drop the pretense and discuss things fairly. Rationally.

Once you embrace the sort of acknowledged limits on knowledge that the greys represent you can be candid and exploratory and otherwise open minded. You can find the cozy place where people can hold divergent views and still be respectful.

The internet is supposed to be this place where everyone has a voice. It’s supposed to be the embodiment of the marketplace of ideas. But instead of opening us up and connecting us, the writing online today — more often than not — serves to not only reinforce biased and divisive thinking but exacerbate its effects through the perception of a multitude of voices.

We need more grey.