What’s an “either-or-er”? The odd title suggests a keen awareness of differences, an inclination to focus on the incompatible aspects of things, perhaps a tendency to be judgmental, a likelihood to position everyone and everything on a scale of individual values.
What’s a “both-and-er”? This odd title suggests a greater awareness of commonalities, an inclination to focus on the compatible aspects of things, a tendency to be inclusive, a likelihood to position everyone and everything within a pool of similar values.
Here are a few examples:
– in medical practice, a highly competent cardiology specialist may know little about infectious diseases and barely recognize them, while maybe a general practitioner would;
– in baseball, an overall good team player may be more highly valued than an occasional heavy hitter.
– in politics, a leader of a party who can effectively communicate and collaborate with a leader of another party is often more effective than an esteemed and perhaps popular individual who cannot.
Historically, sometimes people who are initially more “either-or” may gradually tend to become more “both-and”.
People initially thought of as primarily one or the other, this or that (i.e., totally different), gradually can come to be seen as having a lot of commonalities, one with the other.
The opposite is also true: someone at first attracted by commonalties may end up increasingly focused on differences.
Changing attitudes and understandings can also be seen in religious matters, too. Many religious groups that once had been decidedly divided one from the other and separated are gradually finding common ground.
For example:
– Judaism originally (in the early Biblical times) was perhaps more unified and less diverse than it is today. But, even so, today, in spite of a wide variety of points of view and religious practices, all their adherents still consider themselves Jewish.
– Christianity started as a branch of traditional Jewish religion, but after a while both Jews and Christians became more focused on their differences than their commonalities.
– Christians themselves once had such low tolerance for differences that Christian groups with different practices came to be regarded as separate (and antagonistic) churches that were often denounced by the other. (The modern ecumenical movement is trying gradually to reverse that.)
In our days, there are three great monotheistic religious groups—Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Each of them worships the one (and necessarily the same) God, in spite of their difference in their holy books, history, and practices.
Something similar could be observed about other aspects of our modern society. Almost all religious, political, and social groups, in spite of their differences in practices, values, and mutual esteem, tend to share more and more what once were the separate history and values of each.
Every person has personal dignity, unique values, and can make unique contributions. In spite of all the problems in our modern world, happily we’re gradually, slowly but surely, seeing more both-and-ers (and fewer either-or-ers)!
At the risk of being a little chauvinistic, don’t forget, “E pluribus unum!”
28 May 2023