One element which I think is important in working for change is avoiding the temptation to think in abstract dichotomies. Dichotomies most often produce a stalemate between those for or against. Ultimately, they reduce the ways you can think about a situation and hide the larger contexts which produce the dichotomy. In so doing they restrict which options which seem to be available for action. One of the primary examples of this is the abortion debate.

Quite a few years ago, an extreme anti-abortion group, who claim that abortion is genocide, set up shop at my university campus. This sparked a massive debate around the university which was violent and polarised. While this was an important and necessary debate, what was ignored in fighting over the status of the fetus was the larger social context in which this debate took place. That is, the choice to continue a pregnancy is generally not based on how the fetus is defined, but on larger social issues, including the low status of single mothers, the lack of support both financial and emotional and the lack of flexibility among employers and educational institutions. However, when I asked a pro-life campaign group what support they provided to new mothers I received the answer “I think we might have some second-hand clothes somewhere”…

Dichotomies drain away energy so that it becomes harder and harder to see what can be done. However from a larger perspective there is often a great deal of productive work which needs to be done and which would benefit everyone. In this case, fighting for better child-care, better maternity/paternity leave, more flexibility within the work environment, and fighting against ignorant attitudes to single mothers and against the isolation often involved in child-rearing.