Three Elements are required to complete a rational thought. Three elements are necessary to be logical. The world is lazy and allows but two. The result is Binary Thinking. Today, binary thinking took a narrow beating. People saw past Trumpism, the ultimate binary, to something that adds to reality both ethics and aesthetics. Unfortunately, even very smart people fail to see the point.

Reasonable, logical thought proceeds by taking any reality and allowing it to process through ethics -- an index of values -- to aesthetics. Aesthetics are universal.

It is our acts from ugly to beautiful. It is our expressions from crude to lucid.

Skewed zeitgeist

The most annoying example of binary thinking is the flood of educated commentary regarding the harmful effects of the Internet -- explicitly its social networks. This, to me, is like faulting democracy for its manifest and obvious flaws. What else is new?

A recent example was bemoaning the collapse of society due to Facebook. The person cited an incident in India where harm was done that could be traced to this social network. My first thought was a small town in Massachusetts called Salem. In Salem, centuries ago, women were routinely burned alive as witches.

Wherever communication is possible there will be abuses but they have nothing to do with particular entities and everything to do with how people live and move and have control of their own being.

Consider

If, before we act, we stop and think, we will automatically put a brake on impulse that could be called unconscious or knee-jerk. If we are brought up with a lively sense of three stage consideration, reality, ethics, aesthetics, so much the better. If we are accustomed to taking some time every day to clear ourselves of bad events and affirm the now and the future, excellent.

If, in addition to these things, we frame our encounter with reality, ethics, and aesthetics into what I call a colloquy, bravo. Because we are meant to talk to ourselves. We are enabled to think in the stages I have suggested. Take Facebook as the reality. Confusing, clunky, invasive, bothersome, informative, helpful, you name it.

Then ask is it tolerant, helpful and democratic.

Thoughts and actions

You might also ask how Facebook could be more in tune with these universal values. From there you would move to the conclusion, a consideration of how you intend to act in a way that will lead to truth and beauty. For you, that might mean taking a vacation from Facebook. Or it might mean making a change in your MO on the network. Whatever the conclusion, it is a one-day consideration. You are free! If it leads to a habit, fine. If not, tomorrow is another day.

All reasonable thought requires something more than a quick impulsive response. This is the lesson of Triadic Philosophy.
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