Siths

In the last Star Wars movie, when Anakin Skywalker says, “You are either with me or you are my enemy,” Obi-Wan’s response is, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” Since the movie came out during President Bush’s first term, there was a great deal of speculation that this dialogue was a not-so-subtle jab at the President who seems to see the world only in terms of black and white, and who made a statement similar to Anakin’s after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

While it is incredibly dangerous for the leader of the free world to think like that, it is perhaps even more dangerous that, as a society, we have become so polarized that we seem incapable of dealing with ambiguity and completely lack curiosity of views other than our own.  If true intelligence is the ability to hold conflicting ideas simultaneously, then our national IQ has declined considerably.

Holly Near, during a  recent worship service at the Cathedral of Hope, talked a bit about this challenge: