---
layout: post
title: Diversity - my thoughts on BK's thoughts
date: 2012-01-13
tags: ["diversity","General","philosophy","Politics","self"]
---

My friend Ben has started a new blog, [BK](http://ben-kennedy.com),  you should read it.

His post on [diversity](http://ben-kennedy.com/2012/01/12/diversity/) is very well done and I largely agree with him, but I have a small point on which I would refine. (And since I have been searching for something to write about today, I will stretch it into an entry.)

Ben starts out by saying: "Everybody loves diversity, except when it comes to ideology."

I would refine this to say that people quietly crave a very specific kind of diversity when it comes to ideology, the **duality**.  The us vs. them mentality is somehow part of the human psyche at a very low level.  I don't think that we are inherently looking for conflict, just that conflict is a required component of feeling a _belonging_ to your own group.

Humans therefore create this duality even when there is in fact a continuum of opinions. Politics is the perfect example.  There are not in reality two camps, left and right.  There is a very smooth spectrum from Crazy pinko liberals to wack job conservatives. Or you could divide it into libertarians and authoritarians.  No matter what metric you use, it will be a roughly even distribution.  But acknowledging that makes for poor arguments and bad TV.

While the result is vitriol and animosity, I think the true cause is an attempt to identify self.