There are absolutes. The problem with this world is that we fail to realize this. There is a right and wrong answer to every question. Many, if not all, cannot (or will not) dig deep enough to find the true answer. They are swayed by the factors around them whether physical, environmental, social, political, spiritual, etc. Many choose the answer that best fits them. I am not perfect by any means and I make bad choices, but deep down I know what is right and what is wrong. Some have made the wrong choices for so long that they have forgotten the right one.

I have to disagree. I think there are clear right and wrong answers for some things (Is it okay to let an 4 year old drive your car? No), but for other things, answers are definitely gray. For example, this weekend, I was asked what my top five favorite movies were. My answer to that question will be different every time you ask, and depends on my mood, what I've seen recently, and how well my memory is working at any given time. It's a rather mundane example, but the right/wrong element extends to things as profound as religion and cultural values. If everything had a clear right and wrong answer, we wouldn't have such entrenched debates over things like abortion, gay marriage and capitol punishment. After all, people on either side of those arguments think that they are truly right - and given each person is different, and everyone has reasons for their own covictions, they all are.

First of all, I have to disagree on the either/or-thing. There is always an either/or in life. Either it is black or it is not black (which doesn't mean automatically it has to be white!). But I think, I understand, what you mean. I'm also not sure, if we "need" both - either and or -, but we have them anyway. They are, so to speak. Even though mostly they came as either-or-or-or-or... But back to the challenge and Nacy Willards quote: Speaking of questions, this one came up in my mind: If questions really are more important than answers "sometimes", what happens the rest of the time, when it's not "sometime"? This insight seems to me as high as "Sometimes it rains, you know." Nancy surely had better ones. Of course and apparently it is not wrong. For me, personally, it's worse, meaningless, so to speak. But that's just how it effects me. On the other hand, I fully agree with you, that there are no absolutes. Even this conclusion isn't. If anybody out there can proof me wrong, I would be delighted. C'mon, proof me ;-) Just a little thought, DJ's comment brought me to. Could it be, that every decision I make, everything I do, is right and wrong as well? I mean, if it is right for me, does that mean, this has to be right for everyone else? Will it remain right, the rest of my life? Or at least the rest of today? Hard to decide...

Wrong is defined as that which is not right. So for the universe of answers to a particular question there is only one answer which is right, the remaining answers being wrong. (Ties are possible for the right answer.) To be able to define an answer as wrong or right, we need to define a goal. For example, suppose the question is, "On which three of our clients should we invest much more that we are currently investing?" Suppose furthermore that our goal is to maximize profit in the next ten years. Imagine that you can create parallel universes - one for each possible answer. Ten years from now, by looking into these parallel universes, you can measure the profit earned by each of these answers. One answer will have yielded the highest profit. That is the right answer to that question, given that goal. Just because we can't predict the future doesn't mean that no right and wrong exist. They do; and different people can identify right and wrong answers with varying degrees of accuracy.

Hmmm, a very good thought. I wonder, what happens, if our management realizes, the top three on the list are clients we do not have at the moment? :-)