13 November 2006

Zebra Beta

"Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash." Louis Aragon

Zebra exists in the form of black and white, similar to panda. The only difference between the two is the color layout. Zebra comes in stripes, where panda is usually white with black patches around the eyes, ears, shoulders, chest, legs, and feet. Although both animals are in black and white, zebra is more complicated. Is zebra is white with black or black with white? This is an unorthodoxical. It is like asking which comes first: chicken or eggs.

Interestingly enough, this is human nature. People like to do sophisticated things to either show off or pretend that they are deep. They want to be different. Everyone has the tendency to complicate simple things. If the complications bring in benefits, it at least is worthwhile to understand the results. Else, if the complication is complicated only for the sake of complication, then it is only going
to be a waste of time.

Black and white has a sharp contrast. The opposite of black is white, and vice versa. In the world of black and white, there is no rainbow. There is no red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Everything is simple, and there is a clear line drawn between everything. What is yours is not mine, and what is mine is not yours. Everything is clearly defined that no grey area exists.

Color creates significant visual impact, but everything becomes complicated. Everyone has to make choice when there is more than one, and he or she has to go through more complicated decision making process when there are more than two.

Which color is better? Grey? How grey? Red? Bloody red? When color is color, the choice is simply personal preference. But when color is used to represent personal character, everything is simply in chaos.

If black is negative and white is positive, then where is neutral? It has to be somewhere in between, and that is the grey area. In the grey area, nobody is sure of anything. It is like the color of sky. If it is blue, the weather is fine. If it is black, then it will rain like cats and dogs. But grey, is it going to rain or not? How should everyone prepare? Everything is indecisive and in a wait-and-see
mode. Nobody can move forward or backward. It just stucks!

When there is only black and white, even the mathematical function is simpler. Black plus white equals grey.

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