No Middle
Do you remember the last time you compromised?
What was it about? Did you give in? Did they?
Did you meet "in the middle"?
The idea that life requires compromise seems to be generally accepted as a fact. After all, we can't control everything. If you're not willing to compromise, by definition you will spend a lot or all of your time arguing and fighting.
But is compromise actually good?
The argument can be made that compromise is the art of taking any situation and ensuring both parties are unhappy. If you want to paint the walls blue and they want to paint them yellow, you now have to paint them red. Now nobody is happy. If you get a shade of blue, one of you didn't compromise. Ditto for yellow. Green is a grey area (haha). A shade of green that looks close to yellow could be seen as them "winning" after all.
There are also "binary" situations where compromise is a little more ambiguous. If you want to eat out but they want to stay at home, there's not a real compromise to be had there. Yes, you could say "We'll eat out this time and stay home next time". Now you're keeping score. Every time you eat you'll have to put a mark down in one of the columns. Are you going to argue that since your friends invited you out that day, it doesn't count as choosing to eat out? Or maybe if neither of you disagree that day doesn't count either? Compromise happened and yet somehow there are more things to disagree about.
Outside of the technicalities, I have a more core issue with compromise. If you're willing and able to compromise, to me it signals you didn't actually care that much. Even the classic "agree to disagree" is a bit of a trigger phrase for me to be honest. If you feel strongly about fairness, but when someone tries to get you to do something unfair you "compromise"?
I don't understand it. I'm uncompromising on this. I think people shouldn't suffer, so I can't forgive a corporation that exploits people in other countries. I think things should be fair, so I can't forgive capitalism as I see it reward the richest, loudest idiot.
I can see the argument for compromise though. If you choose to only spend time or make choices with people who will agree with you, then we end up in a bad place. We'll ignore the fact that the internet has basically made that a reality for the moment. If you never compromise, the people who stick around will be the people who never disagree with you. If you never have a disagreement you might never try a new food, go to a new place, learn a new thing. Meet a new person, maybe make a new friend.
Disagreement is important in that it stimulates us to change, grow or learn.
The English language has done a funny thing with the word as well.
If I were to say "You're compromised", how does it make you feel?