The Impact Blinder of Black or White

This has been quite the month in the life of one David Scott Bowers (aka Costa Rica Guy)…

For starters, my most ardent supporter, and defender, for the last 55 years passed away at the beginning of it…my mom.

Right on the heels of that came the election of my “platonic” arch-nemesis, Donald Trump, as President of the U.S. Now I realize that’s not a good use of the adjective, but I use it only in the sense that, thankfully, we don’t have any actual relationship (never met the man). Otherwise, I’d surely be the subject of some seriously spiteful tweetings.

Finally, just in the last week, we’ve seen the passing of a larger than life figure who cast a shadow on all 55 years of my life on planet earth. I’m speaking of the passing of Fidel Castro.

I’ve long been inspired by the story of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary. You know the Cuban revolutionary misfit who, along with a ragtag group of around 80 men, set sail from Mexico to Cuba on the leaky yacht, the Granma. There was also a guy onboard named Ernest “Che” Guevara. I’ve written quite a lot about Che Guevara in this blog.

They were ambushed upon arrival to Cuban shores and out of the 80 some odd men that originally set sail, only around 18 made it up to the Sierra Maestra mountains in the interior of the island. From there they spent two years amassing a revolutionary force of peasant farmers who were successful in taking control of the island country and resting it from the hands of the U.S. backed and brutal dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

The revolutionary government of Fidel Castro started out pretty good, with laudable aims. Some of those were actually accomplished. For instance, did you know Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world and that it produces more doctors than any other country of its size? It also is quick to come to the aid of other developing countries, as was witnessed recently with the Ebola epidemic in West Africa a few years ago.

But we also know that Castro gradually morphed from revolutionary hero to oppressive dictator. He suppressed the free speech of the Cuban people and jailed thousands as political prisoners.

What’s for sure is that Castro’s death is showcasing the tendency for us to think in black or white terms when it comes to anything politically tinged. I believe that’s not only true in the U.S., but throughout the world. If you’re a democrat, then all republicans and their ideas are bad…and vice versa. For people whose passions have been inflamed by Castro’s passing, he was either a monster or a saint.

Thinking in this polarized way is at the root of many of the problems we face in American society and throughout our world. The election of Donald Trump certainly seems to have exacerbated this type of thinking.

I would call this mode of thought the impact blinder of black or white. It blinds us from the truth. The real truth is rarely found in the black or white of political propaganda, lately expressed in mean tweets and non-factual Facebook memes, but in the grey areas of actual facts.

The truth is that Castro did some good stuff and he did some bad stuff. He did stand up courageously against the imperial inclinations of the world’s greatest superpower. He also failed miserably in the human rights department, especially in terms of upholding the rights of his own people.

We will get along with one another and progress as a society when we stop thinking in terms of the black or white nature of political propaganda and instead embrace the actual truth. The truth that applies across the board.

Why not remove the impact blinder of black or white thinking and instead wilfully embrace facts and truth?