Especially in today’s political climate, one thing seems obvious. The vast majority of people have a very simple view of the world and the issues of the day. To many, everything is black and white, up or down, left or right, liberal or conservative. Most fail to realize that there are varying shades of gray surrounding almost every single issue we face. I don’t mean this as a criticism. I don’t intend to sound mean. It’s really just how things are. We need to understand this, if we have any hope of understanding the choices made by the masses, that, unfortunately, the rest of us have to live with. The extremism, that seems to be escalating recently, emanates, at least in part, from this simplistic view of the world and the issues that challenge us. Things are always so clear cut with these people, while some of us know that there are usually many nuances and layers to any given issue. Look at what’s being said concerning terrorism. There are Muslim terrorists. Therefore we must wage war against all Muslims. This view ignores many factors. But the primary one is that the vast majority of Muslims prove emphatically that they are peaceful by actually living amongst us peacefully. But that doesn’t matter to those who look at the world in black and white. Muslims aren’t Christians. Therefore they don’t serve the right god. Therefore they must be evil. We have economic issues in this country. We have a huge national debt. So what’s the solution, at least according to the simplistic ones? Well, it must be all those foreigners either taking our jobs here or taking our jobs overseas. And let’s not forget all the free stuff that they get here too. They’re living better than our own people. That’s has to be the issue, doesn’t it? They’re at fault. Eliminate them and our problems go away. But no, wait, isn’t it those greedy rich people stealing all our money for themselves? That has to be it. No, actually, the truth is much more complex than that. If we examine this, we see that at the core of this simple way of looking at things is emotionalism. Most react emotionally to issues. Most simply aren’t equipped to think critically and honestly about anything. And the truth is that most aren’t inclined to do so even if they had the tools. Attention spans are just too short today and there are just so many ways to be entertained that most of those among us simply don’t want to make the effort to be informed. They simply react emotionally according to however they’ve been programmed all of their lives. This is what keeps the liberal movement going. People are poor, while others have excess. The emotional response to this is that something needs to be done. And the simplistic answer as to what needs to be done is that those with excess need to provide for those in need. This view ignores the other layers of the issue entirely. But the same is true on the right. Those on the right see things changing in the world. They long for the good ole days when things were how they should be. But that’s an emotional reaction. The truth is that some things need to change. The old days weren’t all that good for some people. We don’t need to go back. We see this emotionalism and simplistic world view evident in the current political campaign. Trump just makes a bunch of promises with no specifics and people just fall in behind. But then on the other side, we have people doing the exact same thing with Bernie Sanders. It’s true that Sanders has more of a plan. But his plan is outlandish, immoral and just isn’t going to happen. But reality can’t get in the way of his supporters. The reality is that the course of this country is decided by people who really don’t look into things all that deeply. They are either incapable of critical thought or they simply choose not to engage. This goes a long way in explaining the mess we are in as a country. But how do we change this? I don’t really have that answer. I wish I did, but I don’t.