You and I are two of the seven billion plus people on the planet. We breathe the same air, we drink the same water and we are subject to the same natural laws. As a result, we share a lot of common problems. I am convinced that the overuse of dichotomous/dualistist/black-and-white thinking at the expense of cortical based goal-oriented thinking is the greatest enabler of and the single most important barrier to solving all of our most fundamental problems as a species.

DEFINITIONS

Most formal definitions of dichotomous thinking are framed within the context of mental health and focus on the ignoring of the grey zones. I am not trying to redefine DT but to broaden the usage of the term and to point that DT also leads to ignoring the greater complexity of color (problem solving) which goes beyond the linear black-grey-white spectrum.

Wikipedia:   Dichotomous thinking also known as all-or-none thinking or black and white thinking is a type of thinking or cognition in which a person classifies something into two absolute categories rather than a range or spectrum between two categories (“shades of gray”).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cazort/dichotomous-thinking

Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault, PhD, Expert in borderline personality disorder,
Dichotomous thinking is also sometimes called “black or white thinking.” This is when someone is only able to see the extremes of a situation, and is unable to see the “gray areas” or complexities of the situation. For example, a student who engages in dichotomous thinking may believe that if they don’t get an “A” in class then they have failed.
http://bpd.about.com/od/glossary/g/dichot.htm