I have a guest post today over at The Education of Oronte Churm. It's called Too Much Culture But Not Enough to See. Please be obliged to confer.
Coincidentally, Russell Jacoby has a column in The Chronicle of Higher Ed on the same subject (of the place and merits of binaries) called "Not to Complicate Matters, but ...". He offers towards the end that "It is true that fixed oppositions between good and evil or male and female and a host of other contraries cannot be upheld, but this hardly means that binary logic is itself idiotic." Recognizing his point but seeing it differently, I'm not sure where to go next. Though does that mean our views are, strictly speaking, opposite? I'll have to reread the two columns and get back to you on that.
As I get older and am more versed in (or swayed by) arguments from different perspectives, I realize too that two is to small a number for any honest discussion. I think this is why I have such a problem with the regular media.
It is therefore ironic that I cite my reading of Snow's The Two Cultures in Autumn 1996 as the single most influential moment of my educational trajectory. As a freshman engineering student, I committed myself to bridging the two cultures.
The bridge I am working on these days sure is funny looking.