Issue 25 - Whispers in the Grey

Hello and welcome to my weekly email newsletter, Deep Life Reflections: Friday Five, where I share five things I’m enjoying, thinking about, and find interesting. A warm welcome to new readers and I hope you enjoy issue 25.

Here’s my Friday Five this week.

1. What I’m Reading

Complicating the Narratives. An essay by Amanda Ripley.

As we navigate an era defined by tribalism and polarised viewpoints, journalists stand at a pivotal juncture. Amanda Ripley, a journalist with over two decades of experience, issues a rallying call against false simplicity in her superb essay, "Complicating the Narratives." She urges reporters to cover complicated issues differently; to reveal all the shades of complexity rather than the standard two polarised views.

“We value the ancient power of storytelling, and we get that good stories require conflict, characters, and scene. But in the present era of tribalism, it feels like we’ve reached our collective limitations.”

Ripley spent three months interviewing people who have mastered the art of handling conflict creatively. These individuals figured out how to get people to open up to new ideas, rather than closing down in judgement and anger.

Researchers have a name for the polarised divide the world is experiencing—an “intractable conflict.” When this happens, the brain's response to charged interactions is altered, and it behaves differently. Curiosity is stifled in the face of perceived threats. To examine this phenomenon, the Difficult Conversations Lab at Columbia University organised 500 contentious encounters. Participants were exposed to two versions of the same polarising article in advance. While one version presented a conventional binary perspective—a traditional ‘for and against’ viewpoint—the other adopted a more nuanced and compassionate tone, reflecting diverse viewpoints and complexity.

Those who read the more conventional and simplistic version tended to get stuck in negativity. But those who read the more complex version showed higher levels of curiosity and engagement. They didn’t solve the debate, but they had a better understanding and a willingness to continue the conversation. Complexity is not a barrier, but a bridge to understanding.

The lesson—not just for journalists, but for all of us—when dealing with “intractable conflict” is to complicate the narrative: finding and including the details that don’t fit the narrative, on purpose. This approach paints a fuller, more accurate picture and enhances the impact of our work. Because when people encounter complexity, they become more curious and less closed off to new information.

In other words, they listen.

2. What I’m Watching

Oppenheimer. Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan’s riveting and haunting biopic, Oppenheimer, is everything you want from a cinematic experience. Nolan tackles world-changing history with force, fission, and fusion, illuminated by the central performance of Cillian Murphy as the brilliant physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, who played a pivotal role in the development of the atomic bomb.

As film critic Matt Zoller Seitz observes, Oppenheimer is a film about faces. Characters speak, listen, react to good and bad news, and occasionally get lost in their own thoughts. Nolan rediscovers the power of huge closeups of people’s faces, encapsulating the inner struggles of individuals grappling with who they are, who other people have decided who they are, and the rippling impact of their decisions on others.

The recurring metaphor of a chain reaction—the domino effect triggered by individual choices—resonates both in Oppenheimer's tumultuous private life and in the trajectory of history post the successful Trinity Test. This momentous event, the world's first successful atomic explosion, is a phenomenal piece of cinema by Nolan, a feat achieved without CGI. We, the audience, share the same experience as the scientists: we see, then hear, then finally feel, in all its terrible impact. Few filmmakers have that talent and we are reminded of the unique power of the cinema as a shared and intimate experience.

Oppenheimer emerges as a multidimensional portrait of a conflicted man; his hubris in the face of devastating change. He stands as a paradoxical figure in history. Oppenheimer's intellect and leadership played a crucial role in the success of the Manhattan Project, but the profound moral implications of his creation haunted him, leading him to quote the Bhagavad Gita: “I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

In the end, J. Robert Oppenheimer’s legacy is a fusion of brilliance, moral contemplation, and complexity. His life story asks us to reflect on the interplay between innovation, moral responsibility, and the enduring reverberations of difficult decisions. As a film, Oppenheimer is a modern masterpiece that offers no moral judgement. That’s as it should be. Like the story itself, there is no binary division, no stark black and white, only a continuum of grey, encompassing the complexities of human nature and human history.

3. What I’m Contemplating

Can a decision be both morally justifiable and ethically questionable at the same time? And if so, how does that shape our thinking and actions?

It’s been 78 years and five days since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and then the second, three days later, on Nagasaki. The world bore witness to the devastation these new weapons could unleash. I’ve visited Hiroshima and its Peace Memorial Museum. Here, I read the letter sent by Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt on August 2, 1939—a plea to expedite experimental efforts in the United States, spurred by the spectre of Germany's pursuit of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type."

The narrative surrounding the atomic bombs often unfolds in shades of paradox. The very decision to unleash this destructive force stands as a juxtaposition of moral justification and ethical ambiguity. For some, it marked the swifter conclusion to the Pacific conflict, potentially saving countless lives—both those in Japan and beyond. Yet, this very act revealed the reality of our world's vulnerability through the terrible images of death and destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Eight decades on, the shadow of this monumental decision lingers, a stark reminder of the responsibilities that accompany great power.

The French novelist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr captured the essence of dealing with decisions wrapped in complexity: “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”

In a world where information is often polarised, we should seek diverse perspectives, as the lessons of 1945 implore us. Just as we assess the nuances of a complex past, we must confront present-day complexity, going deeper into multifaceted narratives and engaging with voices that challenge our preconceived notions. When we venture into shades of grey, embracing complexity in areas where the answers rarely sit within neat categories, we give ourselves a better opportunity to make more informed and enlightened choices.

4. A Quote to note

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

5. A Question for you

When faced with a decision that involves moral ambiguity, what strategies do you employ to explore the various angles and implications before reaching a conclusion?

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

James