Good morning all you awesome people (you're awesome because you're reading my blog)
I know that I haven't posted for five months, and I sincerely apologize. But I'm back. Exams provide you with a lot of free time for doing all sorts of things, like writing blog posts
One of the topics that I might be questioned on in the exam is the concept of the binary. So this blog post is my attempt at understanding that.
Many people first come across the term during middle school or high school, or maybe primary school (doesn't really matter, they come across it during school) in a Computer class. And all that the sad student is taught is that the binary system was the first language used with the computer. It consists of 1 and 0. In other words, you talk to the computer using 1s and 0s. Simple enough? An important thing to note in this system is that 1 and 0 are different. I'm sure many of you are going:
But that is an important thing to note. 1 is not 0 and 0 is not 1. Now let us proceed.
The idea of binary was extensively used by a bunch of literature nerds called 'postcolonial theorists'. It's not a big thing really. At the end of this post, you can go around pretending you are one. Anyway, these postcolonial theorists would study countries that were ruled by another country. And while studying that, they would sometimes use the word 'binary.'
When these folks use the term, what they usually mean is a system of oppositions. Let me explain that. Imagine you are 1. We are already said that 1 is not 0 and 0 is not 1. That means what you are not will be 0. Get it? Since you are 1, your 'opposite' will be 0. For example, if you are a girl, and you are 1, then a boy will be 0.
Now the Europeans were the ones who usually went around ruling other countries. And what they did was they put all that they themselves were, into 1 category (say, 1). And they put the opposite of all that in another category (say, 0). So, anyone who was white, European, educated, civilized, and Christian, were all 1. And all those who were 'not white' (black, brown, yellow, blue....), non-European, uneducated, uncivilized, and 'barbarian' were all 0. And as already said, 1 can never be 0 and 0 can never be 1. This means that a European can never be 'barbarian, or a non European can never be 'civilized.
So, the binary system means that there are only two categories in the world. And you are either one or the other. When these Europeans went to Africa or Asia, they would see people who were not European and were not white. And they would immediately say that these people were barbarian, uncivilized, and dangerous. Another way of saying this that is quite popular among these postcolonial theorists is saying 'self' versus 'other'. Self is all that you are, and other is all that you are not. Some of these theorists who talk of these things have also been called dualists. I know that that is a lot of big words for one post. But I hope it was tolerable.
That is all for this post. If you are interested, more posts are on the way. Stay tuned.
Adios!
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