Duality

In the Oscar-winning movie A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe, mathematician John Nash hits upon an idea for his graduate thesis, an idea that would eventually garner him the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994: the optimum economic result is achieved when each party works both for its own interests as well as for the group as a whole. This duality of purpose may, at times, seem to raise conflicts, but I believe that it has wider applications than Nash's economic masterpiece. Here are some examples:

--Within the context of a particular religion, a believer may believe that his/her faith is not only the exclusively true religion, but also that nonbelievers are doomed to eternal suffering after death as well as that those nonbelievers may be so evil that they do not even deserve to live. And yet, as functioning social human beings on earth, people of faith must necessarily get along with others who do not share that faith with them. So there must be a kind of division, or duality, that allows them to both believe in their own religion while being respectful of others. This is for the good of society as a whole.

--There is the duality of authority and guidance that all persons in positions of authority need to exercise, be they parents, employers, supervisors, teachers, etc. At times, there will be a strict command structure in which subordinates (children, students, employees, etc.) will need to "just follow orders". Other times, it will be necessary for there to be an open atmosphere of honest interaction. There needs to be both elements of this duality in a state of balance in order for the authority/subordinate relationship to have optimum effectiveness.

--Watching sports I as often do on television, I am also struck by how I see the best, most respected athletes portrayed. In the context of their sport, they display very aggressive behavior, but must instantly know when to quickly abandon that aggression for the sake of avoiding trouble with officials and competing athletes. This duality of sportsmanship and aggressive competitiveness is something that I've noticed has to be learned, for when I was in school, the competitive kids around me cheated, hogged the ball, and yelled at others whenever they "screwed up"!

--Every elected politician, in order to be an effective leader, has two sometimes conflicting constituents to satisfy: the first are those people who voted them into office and expect the politician to subscribe to a particular ideological canon that meets with their approval. The second are the people as a whole whom the politician was elected to represent, and this naturally also includes those politically opposed to him/her. So the effective politician will optimally work for the constituents as a whole while at the same time satisfying the most important concerns of those who elected him/her. Not an easy task, from what I've been able to gather over the years!

I could probably go on and on with examples of how people need to behave with a sort of duality in the real world. This doesn't mean that people need to be two-faced or hypocritical: as John Nash laid out in his paper on economics, duality itself is a principle that, when adhered to properly, creates the best result, ultimately strengthening each of its facets.