Against Balance or Living in a Round World

In the past couple of years, I've had a growing suspicion of the idea of "balance" in thinking. I thought I'd take a moment to list a few reasons why I don't think it's a helpful goal. Here are my unbalanced thoughts:

First, everyone is balanced. By this I mean that every person on earth can point to someone on his "right" or "left" on any issue. The man in the madhouse complains of his loony neighbors.

Second, balance causes people to define themselves only in negative terms. If, when some controversial topic comes up, all you can do is list two things you don't believe, you just might be balanced.

Third, aiming at balance is sometimes just a way of not having to make hard or unpopular decisions. If "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," then the best way to friendship is to make as few positive statements as possible and hang out in some mushy middle ground.

If I could give a piece of advice, it would be to stop viewing yourself as being in the middle of some imaginary spectrum. In fact, throw out the idea of a spectrum altogether. This will free you to seek to understand the world in all its complexity. A spectrum is nothing but a flat line. But the world is not flat, it's round. Knowing this makes a difference.