Whatever Happened to Compromise?

Most of us are really tired of the members of our Congress fighting like hummers instead of getting anything done.

We live in a world of extremes, which we cycle through: One extreme belief seems to dominate, until the opposing belief "wins," and then IT dominates most people’s thinking. This occurs in economics as well as politics, despite the fact that the REAL way to get things done–in marriage as well as in government–is COMPROMISE. Researchers want to know why a majority of the population doesn’t settle on an intermediate position that combines the best of the old and the new.

In PhysOrg.com, Lisa Zyga quotes researcher Seth Marvel as saying, "For many political issues, economic policies, ethical questions, and allocations of funding, for example, the middle road or ‘golden mean’ between extremes has advantages over either extreme. Furthermore, there are cases–say, with economic policies for instance–where swinging between extremes is costly in itself."

He has come up with a model of ideological revolution that begins with a community consisting of four types of individuals: those that currently hold an extreme opinion A, those that hold the opposing extreme opinion B, those that hold neither A nor B (the moderates), and those that hold A indefinitely and never change their minds (the A zealots). We all recognize these types. Maverick or contrarian individuals emerge at the social fringe. They retain the outdated dogma even after everyone else has converted to the new ideology.

The model reveals that successive ideological revolutions take place in an environment that is not conducive to moderate beliefs. The researchers don’t know how to change this: Even when they adjust the model to encourage moderation, eventually the moderate population will almost always either fail to sufficiently expand or collapse altogether.

Zyga quotes Marvel as saying, the "when the committed believers reach a certain fraction of the community, they are capable of converting everyone to their perspective."

This can seem depressing, until you look at the glass of life as "half full." He quotes anthropologist Margaret Mead as saying, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

What about Visitor experiences–are they good or bad? There are PLENTY of opinionated zealots in the UFO world, but here at unknowncountry.com, we’re a voice of MODERATION, because we get OUR information from the many contactees that Anne Strieber has interviewed, just for subscribers, who tell all about the amazing things that happened to them in their own words.