To ‘Dichotomize’ means to separate into parts or classifications. ‘Dichotimization’ is the act of dividing into sharply different categories. It is part of human behavior. Everyone ‘Dichotomizes’ to some extent, it is a basic part of human behavior to reduce large and complex ideas into simpler forms so that it is easy for the mind to deal with them. But one should avoid dividing ideas into just two categories ‘Good and Bad’

Most of the problems that humanity faces at the individual level are perhaps due to ‘False Dichotomies’ which are a result of ‘Binary Thinking’ or ‘Black&White’ thinking. A simple example of this is when a person faces a puzzling scenario/situation in which only very limited alternatives are considered. For example two people are swearing at each other, so they must be ‘Enemies’ but perhaps they are just friends who don’t mind swearing at each other and have a comical mutual understanding. Not that I endorse swearing or foul language. An example of a person  who routinely engages in ‘Black-and-White’ thinking is the kind of which is who categorizes other people as all good or all bad. Just two categories, its an over-simplification done by mind, due to it’s inability to understand the complexities of things, because understanding complexities requires intellectual effort. Such a person might over-simplify because they are too lazy to invest time in trying to understand something from an intellectual perspective, or perhaps they simply not interested in investing the time and energy into understanding an idea.

The biggest pitfall of dichotomization is the overall loss of potential human capacity. When people are judged on a binary level, it limits society as a whole and prevents fully utilizing the individual human potential of every person that is part of that society. It results in a cumulative disaster, False dichotomization is one of the bottlenecks limiting human triumph.

Some people have a very politicized view of things. In rises due to internal insecurities. ‘Why something is happening, there must be a reason behind it, some planning behind it, i’m going to find out why it’s happening.’ This can also happen because there is no core focus or a objectives to be accomplished for that particular day/week/or month etc, resulting in over thinking a group of random events. Human behavior is quite paradoxical, and is not defined to a certain state, it is malleable over the day, many emotions are felt throughout all days of our human experience which cumulatively make up our lives.

Moving over in my experience competing and contradictory ideas can be equally valid because human thoughts just like human reasoning are potentially fallible. Human behavior itself can seem very strange when studied in depth, there are countless examples to prove this. These days we can easily see many online debates and disputes among people online having various stances and positions on all sorts of subjects. However there is a great deal to be learned from all of this.

The roots of civilization are often filled with tragedy, some of the major masterpieces of western literature often end with really bad endings. Romeo and Juliet For example. No matter how bleak life seems, we are already at the bottom level of perceived reality. We are in the Dunya, it’s the lowest of all places, the place is designed to break your heart, If you are looking to be happy in the Dunya, then you are in the wrong place. We can never be truly happy, but we can be grateful, since the Dunya is a test and a tribulation, from the greatest writer there ever will be.

People in my perspective are continuously variable, they are not constant or binary. Traits or characteristics are not mutually exclusive to any particular human being, but we all suffer from the same issues on smaller or greater scales, but in different mannerisms. Emotions are not jointly exhaustive either, I’ve faced situations in life, where i am happy and sad at the same time, it might seem puzzling, but this has been a very real experience for me. But one thing that life has taught me is to stay away from ‘False Dichotomization’ It’s not a healthy state of mind.