The Either/Or Dilemma

dilemma

noun

1.    a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones.

I am sure you have already guessed what this is going to be about.

The last post was actually started here but turned into it's own entry.  This is a follow on prelude if you will with reflections on our current state of political affairs.  Isn't it sad that  our nation has an either/or mentality.

I mentioned faulty logic in the decision making process in the last entry and it is a much larger topic than I gave it space for.  One of my greater pet peeves is the either/or presentation especially when it comes to communal decision making.  We are played by politicians all the time and we continue to put up with it and frankly I am getting sick of it.

It is used whenever they have already decided to implement a change that will be unacceptable to the general public and usually comes in the form of new taxes, new policy or new regulation that will limit your rights and freedoms and take money from your wallet.  It is offered in the form of either you take this choice we have made for you or you take this other choice that we know no one in their right mind would take because it is so much worse that the one we want you to pick which is the choice we have made for you.

Either we raise your taxes or children will go hungry, or police and fire departments will have layoffs, or potholes will grow, or garbage will pile up, or sewage will back up...etc., etc..

Either you live or you die, that is all, end of discussion.  Or is it.  Life is not just an either/or decision.  It is made up of many, many decision.  It nearly always comes with more than two options.  Look around you and tell me if there are more than two kinds of snowflakes.

I happen to know that there are three kinds of people in the world.  Them that know numbers and them that don't.

So now we are headed into an election where for many there are only two choices.  Gosh I feel sorry for you if you find yourself in that category.  I for one decided a long time ago that neither one of the traditional parties provided a viable candidate or platform that I was willing to support or endorse and this was before the conventions, so I went looking...looking for options.

I must not be the only one as some of the polls I have seen show that a third and a fourth candidate for president are drawing 10% and 6% interest and 3% for any others in place of the more attention grabbing first and second slots.  At least some people are smart enough to know that when a bad either/or choice is placed before them that you should choose neither.

If someone ask you "do you want pie or ice cream" you should answer "yes".  If some one ask you "do you want me to break your arm or break you leg?" you should say "neither thank you, I'd rather go to dinner and a movie with my sweetheart."

If neither choice will leave you in a desirable state (based on your criteria not theirs) then your first action should be to start looking for other options.  During this election there are many that are looking for other options though sadly they are looking for the same old solutions just with a different face.  That is how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place.

If you are afraid to cast your vote (speak your voice) for someone outside of the main two party system because you will just be throwing away your vote then haven't you in actuality done just that.   I thought that if ever there was a time for a third party candidate to rise up that this would be it.  So far the candidate alternatives have remained in the also ran category which is a shame because there is at least one of them that sounds much more intelligent and is running on a platform that far exceeds those of any I have heard so far, yet there are not enough voices willing to throw away their votes and provide at least the option of having his name on the ballot in all fifty states.

When all is said and done (and more will be said than will be done) I am sure that I will not have my choice be the one made by the majority but at least I know that I will have made my choice and I can live with knowing that.  So come on, throw away your vote, but at least do it in a way you can feel good about yourself for doing it.  And don't fall for the either/or trap.  We know better.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.