Sordid Society: Prejudice*

Celebrated and famous psychologist Sigmund Freud once said that the greatest motivator of humankind and human behavior is fear.

And it never ceases to amaze me how society embraces this concept, albeit somewhat unconsciously.

Everyday, we pass judgment on someone, even if we don't even know whom he or she is actually like. You know the feeling. You may not even have to be actually seeing the person. Possibly you heard a story from a friend or a rumor that is spreading widely. Maybe even when you see what they have written.

Now, of course, many people will say here that they aren't prejudiced at all. And that is a load of crap. We are naturally born to judge what we like and don't like. It is something that we gain through the experiences in our lives and what we are exposed to. We cannot help it, since it is ingrained in us somewhat instinctively to discriminate. One such case is the classic fire example. When you were a small child, and your guardian told you not to touch the fire, whether it is the flame on the stove or somewhere else, what was the first thing you did? You touched it. And you got burned. What happened?

You learned not to touch fire again. Why? You'd get hurt. And you don't want to get hurt. So? Don't touch the fire.

These experiences – experiences that are essentially traced back to the concept of fear – shape us. No doubt we all have had similar experiences other than the example I used to make this point. I myself happen to be prejudiced against grapefruit. Greatly against grapefruit. And maybe that is because of that silly diet my cousin tried a few years ago that I was also, forcibly, enforced to follow. What have I learned? Eating grapefruit everyday with a bit of cottage cheese and celery isn't a very nourishing meal every single day. Fear of starvation (yes, starvation, for I was young and my portions small) influenced my dislike. Also, that diet didn't work. I have the sneaking suspicion that my cousin was sneaking in food in at the time (like he normally does). I can't speak any ill of that, since I had done the same. And I won't deny that I would have died without those cookies my friend's mother sent me.

But I think we can all agree that those prejudices are otherwise harmless, even essential to the basic knowledge of an individual. If not, then we would probably be wondering why putting our hands in the fire burns all the time and continue to it all the time.

However, it is when prejudice is used to purposely hurt or damage when it is harmful. It has been done over the centuries and millennia of human consciousness. Let's imagine a small child falls down in the typical mind-numbingly normal park and begins to cry, but their mother isn't paying attention. A teenager goes to help the child up, possibly stop its bawling, having only good intentions in mind. But this teenager has a bad reputation in the neighborhood, isn't very well-known outside rumor, whose clothing isn't in very good shape and is seen as more than a little odd. What happens? The child's mother immediately comes into the situation and starts on the teenager, as if they were the cause. Thus, the teenager is left being falsely blamed for something he didn't do. All because he was immediately judged on stories about him and his appearance.

Happened to me on at least three occasions. I never figured out how I was always seen as the troublemaker, when my cousin is off toeing the line of the law. The irony of it all.

It isn't just on a local level either, but it is particularly glaring in the larger perspective of the world, especially in recent times. Prejudice was one of the major elements of the rise of Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany and his discriminating views killed millions of innocent people, including Jews, gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, and other groups. Segregation was a large part of the United States culture until it was outlawed in the mid-sixties, those of African descent separated from the whites in education, public transportation, facilities, and more. Apartheid in South Africa supported the whites of that country, 20% of that nation's people. And close to our own British history deals with India, where the untouchables were the lowest of the low and barely allowed into towns. And through out the times, women had been looked down upon as subordinate to men. It took inspirational leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mahatmas Gandhi, and others to alert us to the way we were inhumanly treating these groups of people. But just because these people and more have alerted us to the problem, doesn't mean that it isn't there. We see it all the time, whether we tolerate it, disapprove of it, are part of it, are victimized from it.

But what motivates this behavior though? Is it some fear of feeling inferior and lowly? Why do we do this? Certainly, we don't want to hurt other people purposely. There must be some element of fear to keep others in a position that we have power over, so we feel more secure. Fear for our safety, does that motivate us to discriminate against others?

I wouldn't know. As you can probably judge, I'm not a psychologist and certainly not Freud.

I hope you walk away with something from this. Also, I apologize in advance to those who revere grapefruit and all grapefruity things as well the grapefruit industry. I have no intention of offending you, but see it from my position if you will. I would think that eating grapefruit for breakfast, lunch, and (yes, and) dinner continuously for little over a month gives me some kind of entitlement. Now, I implore you to make your judgment on this intrepid, aspiring, grapefruit-hating writer.

Do your worst.

---Harrison Evan

Makes many kinds of sense when applying it to normal, everyday life, doesn't it ?
As for me, I like to think of myself as not prejudiced against anyone. (except el hay2a..get into that later) but still if everyone realized that they have this kind of behavior, the world would be a better place.
Or a bit more bearable than it is now.
Maybe.
*(I didn't write this. That was Genesis. I'm just a big big fan.)