By Daniel Rigney
Major thinkers from Kierkegaard and Levi-Strauss to Derrida and Limbaugh have noted the human tendency to think in stark “either/or” terms. Either/or thinking, also sometimes known as binary or dichotomous thinking, categorical thinking, light-switch thinking, or Tea Party thinking, has the emotional virtue of making a complex and frightening world seem simpler than it actually is.
Here are some familiar examples of our tendency to see the world in stark binary contrasts:
Men are this way/Women are that way (or Martians are this way/Venusians are that way).
Whites are this way/Others are that way.
Good People are this way/Non-Christians are that way.
You get the idea. In fact, you probably depend on a few binary oppositions of your own to simplify your thinking and help you get through life. I know I do.
Yet the angels of our wiser nature call us to rise above such simplistic habits of mind and to see the world as the complicated and bewildering place it is. We are called to think outside the binary.
Thus when a complex question or situation arises and we are asked to respond with a simple either/or answer, we must summon the wisdom to question the question itself, and to envision not just two possible alternatives, but three, or four, or many more.
Thus, for instance, suppose we stumble across one of those popular personality or match-making tests that we so often see in magazines like Cosmopolitan and Soldier of Fortune, posing false dichotomies and asking us to commit to one option or the other – to either X or Y.
We can answer these questions like the unthinking androids we often are, or we can exercise our powers of critical reflection and imagination to generate creative alternatives to the alternatives.
Are you curious to know your own Either/Or (or E/O) quotient? Are you able to think outside the binary? If you think so, you are invited to take the following simple yet challenging quiz.
Warning: Do not undertake this exercise in imagination less than 24 hours before taking the SAT or any similar test of conventional aptitude or achievement. Creative thinking could change your SAT score and your future life-options, and not necessarily in a good way.
Okay, are you ready for your fun-sized quiz? First, I’ll pose a seemingly inescapable dichotomy (either A or B) and ask you to choose one or the other. Then I’ll give you a sample alternative response (C) that I’ve made up just for fun. Finally, I’ll leave a space for you to think of an imaginative alternative of your own.
Here we go.
1. 1. Would you rather read a book or go to a party?
A. Read a book.
B. Go to a party.
C. Do both at the same time.
D. ______________________.
2.
Would you prefer to meet someone who differs from you but complements
you emotionally, or someone who closely resembles you emotionally?
A. Differs from me.
B. Closely resembles me.
C. Define emotion.
D. ______________________.
3. When you find yourself in conflict with others, are you more likely to respond by being aggressive or withdrawn?
A. Aggressive.
B.. Withdrawn.
C. I have never been in conflict with others.
D. ________________________.
4. If you were in an orchestra, would you rather be the conductor or play an instrument?A. Conduct.
B. Play an Instrument.
C. Sell tickets and slip away with the cash during intermission.
D. ________________________.
5. If you could be either a professional athlete or a Nobel scientist, which would you be?
A. Athlete
B.. Scientist.
C. Whichever makes more money.
D. _________________________.
6. Would you describe yourself more as a giver, or more as a taker? A. Giver.
B. Taker.
C. Candlestick maker.
D. ______________________________.
7. If you could be a wild animal, would you rather be a shark or an alligator?
A. Shark.
B. Alligator.
C. Wall Street banker.
D. _______________________________..
8. If you were a famous person, would you rather be living or dead?
A. Living.
B. Dead.
C. Either, whichever is more famous.
D. _______________________________.
9. Is beauty in the object itself or in the eye of its beholder?A. Beauty is in the object itself.
B. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
C. Beauty is in the historically-layered, ambiguously-nuanced and unstable relation between beholder and beheld.
D. ________________________________.
10. Would you rather be a realist or a daydreamer?
A. Realist.
B. Daydreamer.
C. Could you repeat the question, please?
D . _________________________________.
Calculate your E/O Score: Give yourself 1 point for each time you even so much as attempted a “D” response, even silently to yourself. A score of 0-3 indicates that you will probably do well in conventional pursuits. Scores of 4 to 8 indicate an ability to follow test instructions without falling asleep. If you scored a 9 or 10, there is serious doubt that you will ever amount to much, but you will have an interesting life.
No comments:
Post a Comment