From developing a relationship
to planning a holiday to building
a brand, The Golden Extremes
can help you to navigate many
scenarios in life. Interested?
Here are four things you can do:
1. Know your opposites
Left & right wing, male & female, unity & diversity, facts & values. We live in a world of opposites. But these are not mere logical opposites – they don’t simply negate one another. These pairs are polar opposites – they create and sustain one another.
Think of the north and south poles of a magnet. Though distinct, each exists in and through the other. If you try and separate them, all you do is create two smaller magnets. Such ‘polarity’ is an example of what the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge calls ‘the two forces of one power’. Not two joined together to make one, but one expressed as two. Explicitly a duality, but implicitly a unity.
2. Embrace Conflict
Now, where polar opposites exist there will be conflict, and this can be destructive. But the solution is not to avoid conflict (aiming for the midpoint or ‘Golden Mean’ between opposite poles), but rather to fully embrace both sides of the polarity at once. By reaching for the ‘Golden Extremes’ we go from zero-sum game to win-win solution.
Think of the limbs and string of a bow – forever at war. Yet because of their unity, this conflict gives rise to the power that shoots the arrow. Yes, this produces stress (the string experiences tension and the limbs compression) – however the right kind of stress can be a very productive thing.
3. Fight the Good Fight
So, conflict between polar opposites is productive, but it’s much more than just that. It creates real meaning and value. It’s responsible for all that is true, good, and beautiful in our world. And so when harnessing polar opposition we are actively involved in making the world a better place.
An understanding of polarity can heal the divisions caused by destructive conflict – but it also creates exciting new ‘Golden Opportunities’. As well as nurturing existing polar relationships, we can bring new ones to life. And by increasing the intensity of their opposition (whilst supporting their union) we can maximise their meaning and value. ‘Life at its best’ writes Martin Luther King ‘is the bringing together of opposites into fruitful harmony.’
4. Pursue Paradox
Yes, opposites are everywhere, but how do we find them? The answer: be on the lookout for paradoxes – situations involving contradiction, but where both sides of the contradiction are true.
Consider Airbnb’s discovery – that their service allowed customers to ‘Belong Anywhere’. Or Persil’s recognition that if you can get clothes clean again, then ‘Dirt is Good’. Each of these paradoxical slogans points to a polarity that is the driving force for good behind the brands they represent.
As the quantum physicist Niels Bohr once remarked: ‘How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.’
