In USA purple and violet are expelled. It is either red or blue.

Amanda Ripley in “America must step out of this self-destructive zombie dance” Washington Post November 1, references an ad by two candidates running for governor of Utah, in which they committed to respect and uphold democratic norms and a peaceful transition of power.

In a world where we hear polarization artists singing “Anyone you hate I can hate better; I can hate anyone better than you.” “No, you can’t “Yes, I can… Yes, I can”, that sounds like a great initiative. 

I would though like to see included a direct reference to the need of respecting the middle ground, the undecided, those swimming in the middle of the river being thrown stones at from both shores.

I speak from personal experience. Decades ago, in my homeland Venezuela, in an Op-Ed I wrote: “I write in green but my readers send me loads of hate mail, based on that they can only read me in yellow or blue.”

In America right now, purple and violet seem prohibited. It is either blue or red, and both blue and red polarization profiteers seem to love it that way.

PS. https://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2010/05/speakers-corner-speakers-have-moved-to.html

Red and blue, or, red or blue?

On the radio, C-Span recounted details about “Intelligent design,” which according to its defenders is a valid scientific alternative to the evolution theories of Darwin. I could not resist post-scripting the following to my American friends.

Unity is a very precious thing for a country (I should know as a Venezuelan), and there are some issues better left alone. This is clearly one. Pitting “intelligent design” against “evolution theories” can never lead to anything good, and you surely must all be aware that you will never ever reach something close to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.

As a Christian, I know we are challenged by a lot of apparent contradictions in our faith but, as a Christian, I also believe that we are supposed to find ways to make peace with those demons of contradiction, so as not to let the devil triumph. Friends, how can I put this warning any clearer to you? Well, if we were still in the “good old days” of the Cold War, I could have advanced the thesis that the very bad Communists had seeded this destructive and divisive debate in the heart of your heartland.

That said, I cannot refrain from mentioning that, if you absolutely have to, I would prefer the term “Divine Design,” since “Intelligent Design” sounds to me like opening the door to an equally unnecessary debate about more mundane issues such as quality controls.

I switched channels and I heard Faith Hill singing “Is everything A-OK in the good ole USA?”

The above is from my Voice and Noise of 2006

PS. No Faith Hill, sadly, purple/violet is gone, USA is more red or blue than ever

PS: A speech at the World Bank, May 2004, on "Communications in a polarized world"

PS. Social media, which allows polarization and redistribution profiteers to send out their hate and envy messages at zero marginal cost, has become social harmony’s worst enemy.

PS. Distinctively alike

PS. One prime reason for my criticism of regulators risk weighted bank capital requirements not gaining much traction, is that in these times of extreme polarization it's hard to make it a red against blue issue, and violet is so out of fashion.

PS. A tweet January 17, 2021: "Will America end up with red or blue hotels, red or blue grocery stores, red or blue schools, red or blue universities, red or blue social media, red or blue tv-channels, red or blue newspapers, red or blue states, red or blue counties, red or blue taxes?"

Yellow, blue… or green

PS. Red, blue... or violet 

Every two weeks I sit down to write the article that I publish on these pages. I identify an issue and considering myself a reasonably rational man, I dedicate myself to doing a weighted analysis of both sides of the coin and usually I end up identifying myself with an intermediate position.

My next challenge is to find a way to convey the message, both so that the reader wants to read it, and so that he understands it. From the springboard, I prefer to execute a few simple low-score jumps well, than to launch myself with some stunts where, even when the relative score is high, I run the risk of losing the reader ... are they still following me?

After the draft is finished, I hand it over to my wife Mercedes, who proceeds to chop up my five-line sentences into five one-liners. The way she dismantles it into little pieces, and then assembles it, without me even noticing the changes, shows her skill.

Once ready, I send it to Miguel Maita and I wait for the day of its publication, when I see it being born at www. eluniversal.com. Then they begin to enter my email, the not so many, nor the not so few comments:

Kurowski. I hate his yellow ... Aren't you ashamed?

Kurowski. I hate your blue ... Don't you have the slightest sense of shame?

Mr Kurowski. Thank you for explaining it so clearly.

This last comment, without a doubt, does my ego a lot of good, but even in that case I am left wondering if they really managed to capture the beautiful green that I wanted to describe, or if it was only that they saw a still more intense yellow or a blue.

Friends, how do you communicate something when the receiver is no longer able to separate the yellows, blues or green resulting from the mix and only knows how to pick it up on a single unicolor channel? This problem of media color blindness is not exclusive to Venezuela, since it seems that humanity is mutating, probably as a reaction to the exaggerated information volume of the modern world. Will the day come when we will never see green again?

Friends, how do you communicate something when the receiver is no longer able to separate the yellows, blues or green resulting from the mix and only knows how to pick it up on a single unicolor channel? This problem of media color blindness is not exclusive to Venezuela, since it seems that humanity is mutating, probably as a reaction to the exaggerated information volume of the modern world. Will the day come when we will never see green again?

Translated from El Universal

“Communications in a polarized world” A speech at the World Bank Communication Forum May 19, 2004.

A 2022 tweet:
#Polarization
As a response to the modern world’s huge flow of information volume, humanity is mutating. The media is already turning color blind.
Will the day come when we will never again see the beautiful violet that results from mixing red and blue?