This site is to give you a sample of the book, “The Area of Enlightenment.” The expectation is that this book will be a valuable tool for people who want to understand more deeply why difficult disagreements are so common, and how to resolve the disagreements. Further, this book shows, via many of the examples in the chapters, why it is that the “experts” are commonly quite wrong (along with where they are right.) It shows, amongst others, the folly of the Politically Correct movement, in that sure enough they are right in certain cases, but also where they are very wrong, and end up hurting the very people they are trying to help!
The basic idea is to provide a way to understand the reason for many of the misunderstandings that lead to significant arguments. People take positions that seem opposite and irreconcilable: I say it's black, you say it's white; I say it's right, you say it's wrong. Or, in an attempt to restore peace, we may take a position somewhere between the extremes, called “along the gray scale” between the white and black positions. A compromise solution is usually not very satisfying to either party.
This book points out, using topical examples, how the seemingly irresolvable arguments are really not along a line; hence the theme, “Get off the Line, get into The ‘Area of Enlightenment’”. This is because the irresolvable arguments are frequently due to the fact that the argument appears to be “collinear”; that is, along a line, but in fact the attributes of the argument are really not collinear, but instead are at right angles (orthogonal) to each other. This is marvelous, because suddenly the solutions possible are much more widely ranging, and since there are typically four quadrants involved, there is the possibility that each party is correct in one quadrant, and each party is wrong in another quadrant. One could view this as changing from a gray-scale of solutions along a line, to a spectrum of colors in a plane. This illustrates that the old saw, “There are two sides to every argument” needs to be changed to, “For every argument that is on the square, there are four sides (^_~)”
Note that human nature being what it is, I will offend everyone, since they will be unhappy about it being pointed out they are wrong, not remembering where I pointed out they are right!
The Preface and Introduction of the book should be read first, then chapter one, to be prepared for the other selected chapters that are available on this site. They will give a more detailed insight to the Area of Enlightenment. You will need a PDF reader, available free if you need it, to look at the chapters (in the Chapter Download section, there is a link to the PDF reader, through the “Acrobat” button.)
