Dualistic thinking Options

Dualistic thinking is very relevant to people following spiritual paths of any kind, since it involves believers who claim to see and experience another existence and others who having not experienced anything they would describe as other-worldy, disregard these claims and it therefore divides people into two camps.

The language used is also a form of dualism as it separates entities into good and bad and places into discrete areas thus: Heaven and Hell.

Is dualistic thinking useful and a good way of hanging ideas on hooks for further exploration or does it lead to extremes of thought that lack balance and settle people into positions that are hard to find their way out of?

I also disagree with Mediocracy in part.

For instance (as an extension of Fox's example), did Hitler think that what he did was wrong? Did he think it was evil?
Quite the opposite in fact - he saw NOT doing what he did as evil.

I've heard someone describe the Australian Prime Minister as "one of the good guys", yet this is the same Prime Minister who is implementing Stalin-esque "anti-terror" policies (it's actually now illegal for me to say anything against him, our laws are that draconian - oops, I just broke the law), and is such a bastard (that's twice now) with international dealings that instead of letting Indonesia have half of the waters between us and them as their territory, instead made it so that Australian waters go right out to the edge of the continental shelf (about 3/4 of the way to Indonesia).

When dealing with humans, I can neither ascribe good nor evil to their actions, because I cannot claim to hold universal morality (although I have been suspecting for quite some time that there may be one), although I can state that according to my own moral code - which is somewhat utilitarian in nature - someone's actions are wrong. However, when dealing with spiritual entities, I have a bit of an easier time.

I've found that they tend (note - tend) to ascribe themselves an either "light" or "dark" position. That gives me one way of handling them - this isn't necessarily "good" or "evil", since the largest dark entity I've encountered is utterly neutral, but it's a start. Generally there is some reason why they attach themselves to one or the other, which gives some sort of character insight.

Back to the original question - dualism can be very useful, since often the dichotomy arises from the being you are dealing with's own way of thinking. It can also be a hindrance. Then again, I guess it all depends on the topic of conversation - I would have trouble arguing against a "living/dead" dichotomy in the objective sense.