The battle of, for, and from Mid

An exploration of the different connotations of being in the 'middle'

Sep 23, 2023

Last broadcast’s Coherence Metric score was 3.799878 ,placing it #3 overall! To understand what the Coherence Metric score is, check it out here :)

Hello everyone, today’s broadcast will be an examination of the word ‘Middle’. The idea of middle can take many forms, from ‘moderate’, ‘balanced’, ‘ medium’, ‘average’ , all used in slightly different contexts, each meaning something slightly different. But hopefully, by the end, we can answer the question ‘what is [the] middle?’

The Middle in Politics

Many may see political views a slider, where the options lie somewhere on the line: left → centrist → right. Some may be aware of the horseshoe theory, where the far left and far right are closer to each other than either is to the political center. Although their goals, ideals, issues are entirely different, almost polar opposites, the thought process and the process in reaching solutions can be eerily similar.

The Prescence of the state in people’s lives is strong in both, where some decisions or liberties should be taken out of the hands of individual people and should be taken by a central authority. Both seem to have a strong fixation on the topic of race, both often hold the view that a certain demographic of a population has enjoyed a disproportional amount of wealth and benefits, which is holding back others. There is always a strong ‘ us vs.. them’ or ‘with us or against us’ culture regardless of the fact that often ‘them’ are their neighbors, friends or people they see around town, and that ‘them’ are the enemy, and ‘us’ should be uncompromising when dealing with ’them’ - there is no good faith approach to debate, as extremists’ faith in their own beliefs may often triumph over the truth or reason.

To illustrate the similarities, lets try 2 different statements:

“My body, my choice” - One could be talking about abortion just as easily as mask mandates
“the [insert demographic group] have been enjoying privileges and benefits which the rest of us are not, and this needs to change” - such a statement could be heard of both sides of the ‘horse’s shoe’ so to speak.

Is the Middle the Answer?

One may be tempted therefore to claim that the middle, being the centrist, is the best option, but I’d argue that it is not flawless either. Putting too much effort into making sure you do not swing too far one way or the other, making sure everyone’s viewpoint is heard is not great either, as it can lead to the balance fallacy. Some things, objectively, do not deserve equal standing with competing ideas. Should an accomplished astrophysicist or astronomer really have to sit down with a flat-earther and ‘hash out’ their differences?

History says No

Empirically, one often see’s that in fact, being in the middle does not seem to be most popular choice among politicians, especially in the lead up to any elections. Due to inter-party or inter-side competition, there is often a race to the extreme:

Let’s imagine that there are several right- wing politicians vying for votes, when one of them (Politician A) announces that one of the country’s aims will be to have a safer country, and one way they will do that is by increasing the police force or implementing longer mandatory minimum sentences on crimes, so criminals stay off the streets for longer. This politician is now seen as the ‘tough on crime’ candidate, while others may not have the populations best interests (safety) at heart.

In order to ensure they do not lose votes to Politician A, the other politicians need to catch up or risk being called soft on crime. After having caught up, everything is equal again. How do we raise the stakes? Maybe Politician A decides to paint a target for the votes, and begins to decry illegal immigration as a source of crime, and advocate for tougher border restrictions, tighter control. Other politicians follow suit, and this cycle continues and continues.

This cycle can occur on the left as well, just with different policies (police reform, greater representation initiatives) or different buzzwords used. Maybe a different root cause of crime is identified. But at the end of both stories, the average politician’s view has shifted away from the center, purely to attract or maintain vote share.

Taking (no) Sides in A Debate

A middle stance on an opinion can been seen as a positive attribute: For one, you can be seen as the “reasonable” one: maybe both sides have good points and you are settled somewhere in the middle, maybe both sides have such absurd arguments that you choose to be impartial, or maybe you are genuinely torn between which of the two sides is right. Regardless, you appear to be someone who is able to listen to multiple angles of every argument, and are less partisan to one side, appearing to be unbiased.

However, being in the middle can also have negative connotations: you may be “indecisive”, where you are unsure of your opinions, and prefer to stay in the middle as you do not have the courage to pick a side or to be clear on your position.

In some arguments, there may not be that middle ground to stick your flag in, or that fence to sit on: that by not taking a side, you have effectively taken a side. This is most often seen in arguments, where there is often a clear, vast majority on one side, and a tiny minority on the other. For instance, take the issue of Global Warming- you have those that see the threat it can cause, and want commensurate action to be taken to address this. Oh the other, a small but loud minority, are the global warming deniers, who claim that this is an overreaction, a non - issue.

Then there’s a group that are more moderate, often labeled global warming “skeptics”, those that acknowledge the warming climate but disagree as to the dangers that humanity potentially faces. Many ridicule this stance as a weakly masked climate denier position: a way to be a climate denier while sounding more “reasonable” than a strict denier, trying to abuse the notion of being someone who takes both sides into account.

But that perhaps is the danger of never taking a stance on some topics, as if you don’t take the side of a topic that is almost universally accepted and take the ‘middle stance’, not only are you suggesting that there are some opposed to the accepted stance, but you are giving higher credence and legitimacy to that other side.

So What is Middle?

Middle is Nothing?

The middle can also be something that isn’t enough, that people try to differentiate from Amid the masses, you want to stand out as the best- it’s the best that get the attention, the money, the fame. Just take a little trip into the world of books. You may notice that a lot of books have “best seller” status, which may give it more credibility- but how can so many books be best sellers? How many best’s are there? There are many practices, some legitimate, others not so, that aim to help authors reach that status- some methods have even included buying your own book to boost these sales enough for the book to be considered 'bestseller'

The authors themselves are often seen as the best in their field. Books written by a ‘leading expert in the field’ are common, but I haven’t seen many books by a ‘semi- professional in the field’ .Which is completely understandable for someone to beef up their status a little bit, not many would rather listen to an average person if they had the option to listen to an expert.

This can even tend in opinions, where people always label something as the worst or best thing they have ever experienced. Every show you went to is the best one ever, the restaurant you went to was the worst; you just watched the best game of your life. This last one is particularly prevalent in sports talk-shows, where the need to promote what is coming up or what has just occurred is apparent. A presenter or commentator isn’t really doing their job if they label a goal they just watched as average- if you want excitement or interest, you need to go to extremes and avoid the middle.

In a way, being in the ‘middle’ is a dead end, while being at the top, or being the best, actually opens up gates to more opportunities.

Middle is Stagnation?

A ‘middling’ business does not have the positive connotations it maybe deserves: a small company is seen as a startup, full of potential, high risk but high reward, an exciting opportunity. A large company is seen as successful, achieving its full potential, reliable investment,

A middle-sized company? Something in between, maybe hasn’t reached its full potential, maybe something didn’t quite work out. These are often too big to enjoy Venture Capital funding or start up benefits of flexibility and newness, to small to enjoy influence, market control, low cost funding; scale economies like the large firms.

Even countries can suffer from being ‘in the middle’, in the form of the middle income trap, where a country grows very quickly from low value manufacturing and industries such as basic manufacturing or resource extraction, but fails to continue growing and cultivate the most advanced industries, as somewhere along the way, factors such as entrenched industries, rising wages, inadequate education or upskilling of the workforce, lead to overall stagnation of development.

Middle is Best?

However there is one are where the ‘middle’ appears to dominate: lifestyle and life’s excesses: What’s the best for someone is in fact a balanced diet, with moderate intake of things fat, sugar and carbohydrates. Not being online in today’s world is seen as impossible, but being chronically online reaps no benefits. Too little of something, you crave it. Too much, you burnout or lose interest. Even staples to life such as exercise or sleep, too little leads to lower quality of life while too much can lead to injury or long term medical issues.

Middle is (hopefully) Temporary?

The middle can also be something you are hoping to transit through, like a goal or task, hoping to reach and go beyond the halfway point. Reaching the halfway point can be seen as a small success if you reach it ahead of schedule, but a disaster if you don’t proceed any further. And even if you do not transit through, you are are often seen as sliding back: in the world of ‘sinking or swimming’, there appears to be vary little opportunities to simply of float around.

Middle is Everywhere (soon)?

Ai, and the new LLM’s such as ChaptGPT appear to be inescapable, featuring in news articles almost daily with new developments or achievements, pushing the boundaries of human technology. However, one thing that has become apparent is that this technology will serve to as a great tool to level the playing field for many fields. Take law as an example. While it may never replace the skills or tactics of top lawyers, anyone with access to a program such as ChatGPT could write, with the right prompts, professional, coherent and effective arguments, potentially substituting the skills and work of an average lawyer.

Middle is Important?

the middle can also symbolize being in an important or key part of a job, event or task that should not be interrupted. If someone asks you if you are busy, and you reply with ‘ I’m in the middle of something’, this usually carries connotations of importance and the desire to not be disturbed. However if you say you ‘just started’ or you are ‘just finishing’, this typically implies that although you are doing something, you are open to interruptions, if not now, then very soon.

Middle is Squeezed?

The ‘middle’ also often seems to always receive the short end of any stick that is given out- the middle often gets squeezed out of any environment, propelling a few to the top but the vast majority back down to the bottom. Some examples:

Taxes → Even with progressive taxation (where higher income brackets pay a higher proportion of income in taxes), the very wealthy have many opportunities for tax avoidance, being able to restate their income or access higher tax rebates. The lowest earners of a country typically pay lower, or even no taxes. However the middle class often has to pay higher and higher taxes, but do not enjoy the same opportunities as the wealthiest group.

NBA Salaries → Under the new CBA(Collective bargaining Agreement), NBA teams effectively have a hard cap on team spending- a ceiling after which many penalties and clauses come into play. What many speculate will happen is that over time, the best players will get their maximum allowable salary ( as it has always been), and fringe players will get the minimum.

But what about those in the middle? The quality role players who are not good enough to be considered stars but are vital to a team’s success, they are in a tough spot. A successful team is likely to have 2 ‘max’ players, leaving little on the table for the middle players. However another team may offer a much higher salary, but this team may not be as winning as the original one. These middle players may face a difficult choice- accept less money and stay on a successful team, or go for the higher salary with the knowledge that their chances of winning it all are likely over.

Overall, while I may have jumped from idea to idea incomprehensibly, it illustrates how the middle ground can have different connotations depending on the situation, and while it’s good to be in the middle or moderate in most situations, you need some extremes, some definite sides, distinct attributes to shape your personality. So what is middle? Its not all bad, and its definitely not all good. Annoyingly, I might have to say its somewhere in the middle.

Make sure to give this broadcast a coherence score!

That’s all from me for now, but stay tuned for future broadcasts,

This has been Kunga’s Written Radio,