The Golden Mean

This is what I have been thinking about lately. The golden mean is a concept from Aristotle where the most ethical decision is the most central one. If a group is trying to make a decision and they have opposing viewpoints, the golden mean is the central decision, or the compromise--the answer that will be best for everyone. Individuals can be ethical in one realm but if they go to an extreme in that realm, ignoring their other duties it becomes unethical.
The United States government was set up in conformity to the Golden Mean. Our Founding Fathers disagreed with one another about every point of government but they agreed on one thing: that conflict and compromise, however a lengthy process was the best way for a democracy to be run. The two-party system should work through conflict and compromise, and possibly slow progress to make decisions.
My only concern about the world today is that through the Internet and media, people can surround themselves with only others who agree with them, demonizing and definitely not listening to their opponents. Perhaps, I think, we actually need opposing viewpoints to maintain a civil society.
The concept of the Golden Mean also applies to personal realms, like marriages and relationships. Men and women are so very different from each other sometimes, that we can try to give the opposite sex what we think they need based on what we need, but it is not what they need. But yet, when we compromise, we are able to form a whole like yin and yang. My dad once told me (and I hope you don't mind my sharing this) that he and my mom have made their bed together every morning throughout their marriage. It represents to my dad how the tension of opposites, equally pulling, creates a good marriage.
The Golden Mean relates to a type of therapy I have been learning about in school called DBT, (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). Dialectics is the tension of opposites, and the ability to live with ambiguity. If someone has a hard time managing their emotions, like for instance, maybe they have a simultaneous desire to scream at everybody and hide under their beds. Neither option is a good idea, so DBT helps them to find the middle ground between two extremes.
Maybe this is why I have been thinking about this. Sometimes I have the urge to talk impulsively, and in order to not talk impulsively, I think I should not talk at all, but then I start to feel isolated and misunderstood, so I have to go back to talking impulsively. I am trying to learn how to share my thoughts non-impulsively, to wait before I say it, to think about it longer. It's hard to wait, but it is better because I can share my thoughts, but then I don't regret them.
The Golden Mean reminds me of the parachute game we did in elementary school gym. Everyone holds on to the parachute and then everyone lets go at once, and runs into the middle. The middle is the compromise--it is the Golden Mean.
"We dance around in a ring and suppose while the secret sits in the middle and knows." Robert Frost