A friend posed the question to me, "what do you do when you cannot find middle ground between two conflicting viewpoints because one side is so irrational that there isn't a way to reconcile the two sides?" One of her examples is Iran (or Korea) vs the US...
The problem with irrational behaviors and beliefs are that they are fundamentally 'unopen' to rational response.
I mean, if you consider the case of Iran and denying the Holocaust. It is one of the most documented events in history and yet there are people like Ahmadinejad who virulently deny that it happened – crazy!?
Or if you take an example close to home – the batshit crazy Southern Baptists. You can’t reason with people like that...
You can 'rationally' state their motivations – i.e. spawn hatred against the Jews or that black people are inferior – but that doesn’t mean that you can provide a solution that suits both parties because solutions can’t serve irrational and rational goals at the same time. PLUS, to make matters more difficult, because you come from a rational viewpoint, your attempt to stand on middle ground and ‘understand’ their viewpoint is basically impossible.
Talk about your BIG questions in life. If I had the answer to this question, I would be the Nobel Peace Prize Winner and a whole lot richer...
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