Both And

Confronted by tough issues, we often divide ourselves into opposing camps, taking positions that seem contradictory and incompatible. Over the past year, as humanity has grappled with a worldwide pandemic, we have seen some people declare that we must focus on defeating the virus at all costs, even if it means locking down our cities and shutting down our economies, while others have insisted that we must preserve our economies, even at the cost of a less effective response to the pandemic. It’s either or, saving lives or saving the economy, death by disease or death by starvation and despair.

Only it’s not! Some nations have succeeded in managing both the virus and the economy and have done so by first questioning the false dichotomy that says it can’t be done. By aiming for eradication of the virus rather than just suppressing its rate of infection down to a lower level, these countries have managed to return their lives to nearly normal and their economies back to growth. Their response was severe and locally painful, but also effective in preventing the virus from spreading through their communities, and after the localized outbreaks were isolated and extinguished, it was back to business as usual. By contrast, countries that persisted in perpetuating the narrative of dichotomies have continued to limp along with high rates of infection and death, and faltering economies.

The pandemic is hardly the only facet of our lives where we portray things as contradictory to each other when they may actually coexist. Must we really choose between supporting business development and preserving the environment? Is there really a contradiction between loving our country and disagreeing with the policies of our government? Can the prosperity of a company really come only at the expense of its labor force? Shouldn’t it be possible for us to love our families but also to love our time alone without them? If we can catch ourselves before we get drawn into false dichotomies or manage to catch a lifeline out of them after the fact, then we can make better decisions and be happier in the process.

To succeed, we can start with the premise that the dichotomies we perceive are simply narratives in our own minds, and like any narratives, are ours to rewrite. There is no divine law that says it has to be business or environment, but not both. There is no rule in nature that says that one can’t be a nice person and also successful. All of these ideas, and the relation between them, are merely constructs that we create using our imaginations as a way of making sense of the world, and all of them can and should be questioned. While invoking simplified models can help us to understand issues and make decisions, approaching the world with a black and white, us and them, right and wrong mentality can also polarize us and lead us to very damaging conclusions. Sometimes, it’s both and, not either or.