The Quest for Centrism and its Cure

Some time ago, a letter to the editor in the Watertown Daily-Times denounced a trend to view the news outlets Fox News and MSNBC as polarizing effects, and sought a solution, the moderate outlets as NBC.  This was a sincere effort to key on the "coming together" at a compromised position featured as the default understanding of the American culture.  It is an acceptable approach only if it is a legitimate method at ascertaining truth.

Unfortunately, it is not.  It fights polarization with a blind surrender to a position that is hybrid, not an authentic arrival at a suitable solution.  It closes down the arena of ideas for pseudo-thought.

In analyzing this notion of finding the central point acceptable to both, I am heavily influenced by Hegelian thought of historical shifts and the forces that motivate them.  The essence of this philosophical view is the friction of  thesis and antithesis, resolving into a middle position called synthesis.  Graphically seen we have:

I. THESIS -----------------------------> SYNTHESIS <--------------------------------- ANTITHESIS

Centrism holds that this is a necessary historic flow of thinking and the cultures and political systems that develop from such shifts.  Accepting this tenet removed the idea of intellectual fairness that once instructed informed individuals to subscribe to two newspapers, one liberal and one conservative, and to pursue a wide range of reading from all points of the spectrum of ideas.  Acceptance of this premise fails in the one respect of a continuation of this dynamic, expanding itself beyond a second level, like thus.

II. THESIS -----------------------------> SYNTHESIS' <-------------------------------- ANTITHESIS


THESIS' ---> SYNTHESIS" <---- SYNTHESIS'

Note the drift of the original idea towards the original thesis.  In the view of the antithesis, such drift alienates the original proposition of the antithesis.  This could lead to a triple level of historic-cultural shift:

III. THESIS ------------------------------> SYNTHESIS' <------------------------------- ANTITHESIS

THESIS' ---> SYNTHESIS" <----  SYNTHESIS'

                       SYNTHESIS" -----------------------> SYNTHESIS"' <------------ ANTITHESIS'

In these variations to the original Hegelian scheme (I.), I would call II. Remodification and III. Retrofication.  In the drama of history, these would be the components of revolution and counter-revolution.  I hold American culture as whipping wildly between rapid shifts of II and III.

The key to taking a pragmatical application to what could become more complicated is in the view of Fox News as THESIS, MSNBC as ANTITHESIS.  This would make NBC (or any "mainstream" outlets) as SYNTHESIS.  The objection that soon arises is the perception that NBC is merely a reduplication of the same journalistic tone as ANTITHESIS.  This would then be seen as concession, presented as:

THESIS ----------------------------------------------------------------------> SYNTHESIS=ANTITHESIS

Thus we have a closing of mind, the acceptance of a default view, all others to be "debunked" dogmatically.

The solution is standing ones ground, to demand the proof needed to accept a synthesized position.  Centrism may lead to the semblance of contentment, but it would be the contentment of sheep.