The Dialectic:

A) A method of examining and discussing opposing ideas to find the truth.

B) The dialectical tension or opposition between two interacting forces or elements.

C) The art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.

D) An inquiry into contradictions and their solutions.

Whichever definition you choose, they all point to the same question: what does it mean to live our lives dialectically? And why is that something we should aspire to?

To answer these questions, let’s look at a practical, everyday example: consuming the news.

Now, some of you might say straight away, "I don’t watch or read the news anymore—it’s too depressing." I can’t really argue with that. However, if you want to know what is going on in the world and hold an informed opinion, engaging with it is necessary.

The problem we encounter when we do is the issue of mediation—the filtering of truth according to various agendas. This filtering may be relatively benign, born of simple time and space constraints (the length of a broadcast, the word limit of an article), or it may be more severe (outright bias due to a political stance).

The methods of mediation can be subtle—like editing a news report to leave out certain unpalatable truths, or cropping a photo to frame a subject in a certain light. Or, they can be more obvious, say, through directly expressing an opinion, and the choice of guests, or ‘experts’. Some do it more than others, and some are much more in-your-face. But make no mistake: every news organisation mediates the news. It is naive of us to think otherwise.

Relying on a single news source narrows the information available to us and makes us complicit in silencing the opposite view. It creates the infamous "echo chamber," where we only encounter beliefs, ideas, and opinions that reinforce our own, leaving us with the illusion that everyone agrees with us. Notice how this phrase is associated with social media algorithms mediating what news we receive on our newsfeeds. By doing this, they encourage a passive way of consuming the news and shut down any opposite, contrary view.

So, how do we overcome this? By choosing to be active participants rather than passive consumers.

We must use a dialectical approach. This means actively seeking out different, opposing news sources to build a larger, more complete picture of the truth. It requires us to shed our own prejudices—after all, we aren’t immune to mediation ourselves. In these highly polarized, binary times, where we seem to have lost the art of listening to people we disagree with, a dialectical mindset seems to be the only way to halt the increasing splintering of our societies.

Challenge yourself this week: Visit a news site you normally avoid. You don't have to agree with it, but try to see the world through its lens—if only to find the truth hidden in the tension between the two.