Song meaning

Greg has explained in many interviews what the song is about: "We set up the world in terms of black and white, and yet we're gifted with the ability to see shades of gray. But that ability sometimes hinders us. It hinders our progress, it hinders our success, but it makes us more human, and more compassionate. But, unfortunately, the world we set up for ourselves is not always based on compassion. And that, I think, is the ultimate human dilemma". He said most of the problems he sings about can be distilled down to close mindedness and unwillingness to see "the shades of gray".