"Life is not black or white, it is a shade of gray."
But is it true?
To answer this question we need to find out why it was said in the first place. In the earlier times it was believed that life is black and white, that is I'm right, you are wrong. The white here means right or correct, while the black means wrong or incorrect. Then some great philosopher, riding on his high horse of morality, came up with a new theory that life is a shade of gray. His motive was to reduce the guilt that is caused by the "I'm right" syndrome. So he said that life is a shade of gray, meaning that everyone of us has some good qualities and some bad qualities, nobody is perfect. This theory seems good. No one is claiming to be all good neither blaming others to be all bad. Is it. If we look closely, we will notice that indeed we are not labeling people as good or bad, but still we are labeling qualities as good or bad. Can qualities be labeled as good or bad, or qualities too come in shade of gray. But again qualities do not alone define a person, there are always his choices, actions, circumstances. Can all be quantified in good or bad. Or all of them are a shade of gray. If we color all the qualities, choices, actions, circumstances in black, white or gray and then try to define a person then all we will have is a complicated shade of gray.
Let us assume that someone actually sat down and labeled all the qualities, actions, et. al. as black, white or gray, and we get to see the what degree of gray are each and everyone of us. But again life is not made up of people, it has elements of everything there is from the cars we drive, to the food we eat, to each and every material that was ever made or everything that ever existed, all the animals, plants, every natural event that happened like storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and what not. Our life experience is a combination of all of this taken together. Can we label all of these too in some type of black, white or gray such that we can get the final color of our life in gray.
Even if someone actually labeled everything with the black, white and gray what is the guaranty that everyone else will actually agree to it. It is highly possible that something is good for one but bad for another or something like that. Secondly it is also very much possible that some things are neither good nor bad for someone, either they are not bothered about it or they are not affected by it, or even if they are affected by it they cannot classify it as good or bad or part good-part bad.
So is life a shade of gray? Is could be, but if it is then it wouldn't be fair or just. Then what is the solution. I do not think that having a separate color classification for each and every one of us is a good solution. I believe that instead of using just two colors (ie black and white) and its combinations to define anything or everything is incorrect as the definition of colors cannot be the same for two people. Instead if we use the full spectrum of colors to define something, things could make more sense. Every things can be labeled as different colors like red, magenta, blue, cyan, green, yellow, etc. And people can associate these colors what is good for them and what is bad. For example, for one person, red could be good while cyan could be bad, while for someone else blue could be good and yellow could be bad. Here no one is making judgment on whether someone else is good or bad. Everyone has their own perspective and no one is being imposed by someone's views. I believe that making judgments on others tends to curtail others freedom to be themselves. Because judgment leads to prejudice and prejudice leads to discrimination.
I agree that prejudice and discrimination cannot be removed all together as it is part of human nature, but we can still try to go towards an utopian society even if we can never reach it. Hence instead of seeing things as black, white and gray, we should start start seeing things as red, green and blue where no color is any better or worse than the other.
And hence, Life is not a shade of gray, it is (as geeks call it) 24 bit true color.
Let us assume that someone actually sat down and labeled all the qualities, actions, et. al. as black, white or gray, and we get to see the what degree of gray are each and everyone of us. But again life is not made up of people, it has elements of everything there is from the cars we drive, to the food we eat, to each and every material that was ever made or everything that ever existed, all the animals, plants, every natural event that happened like storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and what not. Our life experience is a combination of all of this taken together. Can we label all of these too in some type of black, white or gray such that we can get the final color of our life in gray.
Even if someone actually labeled everything with the black, white and gray what is the guaranty that everyone else will actually agree to it. It is highly possible that something is good for one but bad for another or something like that. Secondly it is also very much possible that some things are neither good nor bad for someone, either they are not bothered about it or they are not affected by it, or even if they are affected by it they cannot classify it as good or bad or part good-part bad.
So is life a shade of gray? Is could be, but if it is then it wouldn't be fair or just. Then what is the solution. I do not think that having a separate color classification for each and every one of us is a good solution. I believe that instead of using just two colors (ie black and white) and its combinations to define anything or everything is incorrect as the definition of colors cannot be the same for two people. Instead if we use the full spectrum of colors to define something, things could make more sense. Every things can be labeled as different colors like red, magenta, blue, cyan, green, yellow, etc. And people can associate these colors what is good for them and what is bad. For example, for one person, red could be good while cyan could be bad, while for someone else blue could be good and yellow could be bad. Here no one is making judgment on whether someone else is good or bad. Everyone has their own perspective and no one is being imposed by someone's views. I believe that making judgments on others tends to curtail others freedom to be themselves. Because judgment leads to prejudice and prejudice leads to discrimination.
I agree that prejudice and discrimination cannot be removed all together as it is part of human nature, but we can still try to go towards an utopian society even if we can never reach it. Hence instead of seeing things as black, white and gray, we should start start seeing things as red, green and blue where no color is any better or worse than the other.
And hence, Life is not a shade of gray, it is (as geeks call it) 24 bit true color.
