The Dangers of Absolutism

In a world that is ever increasingly interconnected geo-politically and the spread of one might call "globalism" there is one truth that is more important now than ever. Rejecting absolutes. Let me give a story, one of fiction, one almost everyone knows and use it as a perfect allegory or representation. In the fictional universe of Star Wars there is something called the Force. It is similar to Dhamma in Buddhist thought in a way, but more fantasized. The Force is an all encompassing sphere, present in all areas of life and certain people are more attuned to it than others, allowing them to do great things. But much like politics and religion, people wanted answers and certainties. Instead of people trying to understand the Force, they created and formed two main lines of thought and held to them strictly. They understood it as their roles being either Jedi or Sith. The Jedi perceive themselves as "good" and the Sith perceive themselves as "good". Both believe in their cause, but both sides refuse to acknowledge that their is no Jedi or Sith, there is only the Force and the different aspects of it. The only reasons these notions formed is because the Jedi were generally not as violent and viewed themselves as "keepers of the peace" and used aspects of the Force that were not seen as "bad" or "evil" or turning to "the dark side". So you could say they used the "light side" of the force. The Sith were generally violent and some very cruel and tyrannical, and yet they too still viewed themselves as "good" in their own ways. The irony of all of it is that both sides openly admit or rather conform to the structure they were told were real. Even the most prominent Sith Lord of all time states "The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some consider to be unnatural". Subconsciously agreeing with the ideas placed inside his head by those who came thousands of years before him, without even realizing the idiocy of the whole system. So what exactly is wrong with this then? Well its simple. There is no Dark Side or Light Side. There are no Sith or Jedi. Those things may exist in the way in which people understood those aspects of the Force to embody under the wrong or right hands, but they are concepts created by people and people create them as absolutes; meaning that there is no other way of thinking about it, that's what makes absolutism dangerous. Absolutes say "this is the only way to think about this and its true because it must be". And much like the Jedi and Sith instead of understanding the Force as a whole and learning to wield it without objectifying it and not create separate factions, that is what has happened with religion, politics, relationships, caused wars, and history, our history is full of absolutist mindsets that threaten us constantly. Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong convinced millions of their own people that Communism was the only way of life and that those who did not believe should be exiled or imprisoned, or even in some extreme cases executed. These types of things led to in 1966 China with the Great Proletariat Revolution and in 1936-38 Russia with the Great Purge, resulting in the suffering and death of millions respectively across both nations for years. Entire proxy wars that spanned decades and caused the deaths of millions like the Cold War. Horrific conflicts like WWI and WWII stemming from ideological clashes and refusal to see things from other viewpoints, strictly conforming to narrative absolutes. And even today, more now than ever we must not turn into Jedi or Sith, we must look at everything in our life as a whole and question every aspect of it while not creating our own narrative or objectifying it. We must not continue on this path we are on or it will destroy ourselves. Look at the recent political events in the United States and you will see more than ever the division created by this very dangerous mindset. Millions of people blindly believe in what their news says to them because they claim to be Liberal or Conservative channels. Millions of people wouldn't hesitate to kill Donald Trump, our President, the person elected by "The People' because they blindly believe in brainwashed doctrines they have been taught is the truth because they believe in absolutes. This has to stop now, and you have the power to help end this nonsense. Because once a world of people, a people themselves become so consumed by absolutes, they begin to stop being a people and turn into savages. Look at the religious warfare starting all the way in the Medieval Ages 500-1500 A.D. The Crusades, mostly Christians clashing against Sunni Muslims over the Holy Land. Yet thousands suffered and died needless deaths over sheer stupidity. And what is the Holy Land then? The perfect example of an absolute. It is literally the physical embodiment of the metaphorical belief both religions share, that this land somehow has meaning beyond the physical and into the divine. If you told them otherwise you would have been called a heretic or a fool, yet they are the fools because they believe in it so blindly and refuse to see it in any other way. That is the dangers of absolutes. Don't ever let someone else control how you think or tell you that something is "the way it is" if you know it is not true. Nothing, absolutely nothing in this world is black and white or absolute. So always question and challenge those who try to tell you that they are, because those people are the most dangerous, they cause wars, they horde wealth from the suffering they cause, they hide behind religion as an excuse for their crimes, they above all do not care about true goodness, they care about living in a world where they are told what is real, because that's easier than confronting the reality that nothing is simple or absolute. So don't take the easy route, look into the abyss we call life and see everything it has to offer, because if you only choose to accept part of its truth, you already have become compromised in ways life can only painfully reveal in your future.