There’s always grey in black and white thinking .

black and white thinking also known with the all or nothing thinking or splitting is defined in Wikipedia as “ the failure in a person’s thinking to bring together the dichotomy of both positive and negative qualities of the self and others into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism used by many people” . As I define black and white thinking I would probably state it as : “ the syndrome of always believing you are right and others most always be wrong without giving them the chance to clarify and properly state their position or motion”.

I think the main driver in such thinking is fanatic ethnicity in all it’s diverse possible meanings . You see, every ethnic group has its own identity that distinguishes them , and basically this identity is a set of ideas, beliefs and traditions that was created by man to form some sense of belonging. When we look to the nature of these identities, we find that it is the product of their ancestor’s experiences. These experiences have been passed from generation to generation as sacred sayings and unquestionable rules , passed by it is the yet prejudiced ,intolerant and narrow-minded attitude we witness today.

the reason why I see black and white approach as very dangerous is because in my opinion, the most dangerous war we can fight is intellectual; A war that makes a man loyal to ideas not his, and radically defend their core and spread their words, and of course with the rise of global liberation, communication and cultural openness, a collision of ideas is becoming very inevitable. If we weren’t equipped with already established principles that can help assess and soundly evaluate the validity of ideas around us, along with basic knowledge on how to accept our differences ; thus if we worshiped the black and white thinking approach then surely we would be easy prays for deception and eventually be persuaded by dysfunctional groups, or perhaps as we are witnessing greatly today military clash as the only answer to the difference of our visions .

I personally find it very naïve to accept ideologies without questioning its validity , reasonableness and effectiveness in our current times , but I wasn’t like that , in fact I was as traditional and mainstreamed as I can possibly get.

what ignited this thoughts in me and yet opened my head to thinking of it globally is my experience in the university . I have been very interested in the political discussions within my university. And since university of Khartoum is the source of many revolutions and political parties in Sudan, there’s always a political discussion, and I made sure that I attend them all. Then I was struck by the sad truth, that I am easily deluded and can form very biased opinions, which lead me to start changing my mind set. I decided to join the university debating club, and there we were taught how to critically and analytically interpret information given to us. how to identify a speech built on emotions and how to recognize one that is built on valid logical arguments. What was special about the debates, and which certainly helped me a great deal , is that the motions and your stands on them were predetermined, which means that you can be defending a case you normally firmly disagree with,and that taught me to find holes within my own opinions. they were no longer that perfect or unquestionable argument ,in fact many of them were terribly invalid and illogical!

I began to change, and black and white weren’t the only colors I can see , I saw GREY ! I SAW LOTS OF GREY! ,and it surely helped a lot in understanding myself and those around me ! I knew that everyone believes they are right just as much as I used to believe am right ……to be able to share their view and look through others lens was without a doubt one of the best experiences I’ve undergone. It taught me that there are “no absolutes; no absolute rights and no absolute wrongs. Every wrong shared a healthy amount of write and vice versa, which lead me to bring my own beliefs in question”. and in that I quoted my coach.

Black and white were no longer ,the only colors I saw, no , I see grey now , and debating has helped me do so!
I think in an era of reason and great minds expanding others experiences and believes naively in our life is sometimes very invalid. Each individual’s identity should be stemmed from owns experiences and cognition, and reasonably taking what’s best for him from others cultures and ideologies .