Monday Musings: Contemplating the Power of NOT Choosing Sides

On occasion, certain friends and even relatives have taken me to task for not usually having strong opinions about one side — or another — of opinions and choices.

"You MUST Choose Sides! No Fence Sitters!"

As of late, I have been contemplating the issues of duality and polarity and binary thinking.

As I said, I often get taken to task for not taking sides in politics, religion and an assortment of arguments and debates where the participants seem to require people to take sides.

I find it problematic because most of the time neither side of those arguments strongly resonate with my own impressions... meaning that I have a very low level of emotional/intellectual investment in the outcome.

But I also feel the need to coinfess that I tend to be a kind of "self-serving opportunist" in many situations. When someone asks me "eBay or Etsy?" I'm likely to respond "both" because I don't look at them as representing an either/or duality, but instead as opportunities to explore with the purpose of determining how I can benefit from each one.

Does that mean I am "unprincipled?" Does it mean I am "playing both sides against the middle?"

Not exactly. I'd be more inclined to say that my principles stand aside from group-think. And that I'm more interested in asking "why is this particular question even IMPORTANT?"

Which always brings me to an interesting piece of irony: Many of those who criticize me for not taking sides also criticize — on a meta level — people for being mindless "sheeple" who follow the crowd without question... and yet I find myself gazing at the reality that my standing alone in thought/philosophy annoys the Sheeple Critics on account of my not sheepishly embracing or rejecting their particular brand of anti-sheepishness... thereby making it impossible for them to brand me either a "follower" OR "an adversary."

Does that mean I "lack opinions?"

Absolutely not!

But it does mean that most situations I encounter get filtered through my own version of a "does this make SENSE?" inquiry.

Sometimes things do make sense to me on a level where I very definitely take sides!

I'll be the first to admit that I's make a shit "revolutionary."

I tend to look at systems I don't like and try to determine how I can quietly carve out a niche within such a system that's to my advantage in such a way that I might establish myself to the degree that I can influence the system I don't like from the inside, thus participating in changing it into something I like better.

Not much into the "torches and pitchforks" approach to change; nor of the mindset that just likes to cause an uproar, simply for the purpose of "making a lot of noise."

At times, I can't help but conclude that there are people on this planet who are more interested in protesting problems and issues than actually solving them. After all, if you solve a problem, you don't get to shout and wave posters around, anymore...

There's actually a surprising amount of power in not choosing sides, but instead trying to the see the positive aspects of both sides of an argument, and working them towards a cooperative middle. And that has pretty much been my approach since I was a little kid who asked "why can people just GET ALONG?"

I may be a lot older and a little more cynical now... but I still ask that question.

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about you? Do you tend to strongly "take sides," or are you more inclined to study both sides of an argument to seek connection, instead? Do leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 2023.03.20 23:04 PST
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