Busting the "Open-Mindedness" Bubble
Apr. 8th, 2005 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickOK, I'm in a particularly foul mood today, and something stupid just raised my hackles, so I'm going to spot gibberish in my journal for a little bit.
Society teaches us we're supposed to be open-minded, to respect everyone regardless of race, religion, sex, personal beliefs, personal handicaps, age and any number of other options.
And then turns around and paints everything in broad strokes of Men and Women, Black and White, Catholic and Protestant.
We teach our kids in equality. I swear to god (and I'll fight you tooth and nail on this one, Kristen), I WILL NOT. I will teach my children to see in black and white (possible pun not intended) because that's how the world works.
Deep inside, we know that there's no equality. We know men aren't EQUAL to women. We know that gay people aren't equal to straight people. We know handicapped people are not equal to those of us who aren't.
The argument, the since-man-became-conscious argument that's been going on is: Who is Better.
You hear it all the time:
The bible tells you homosexuality is immoral. So straight people are BETTER than gay people.
You hear off-color jokes about how once you go black, you don't go back. Blacks are BETTER lovers than whites.
And, hell, even the dean of Princeton is trying to tell us (I'm NOT saying he's right) that boys are BETTER than girls at Science and Math.
We can try to see past the common divisions: past religion, politics, race, sex etc. etc... I'm saying try, because most of us can't.. because most people clothe themselves in ONE of these divisions.. as a good liberal or a good christian or as a black worthy of black pride.
We can TRY to see past these people.. and try to see everyone as individuals.. and then discover, for yourself, that there are STILL worse people and better people.
My point.. if there's much of a point here at all is... let's get off the equality talk. There is no equality. Try to accept people as individuals, try not to lump and accept that some of us suck and some of us rock and that there will ALWAYS be divisions between those who suck and those who rock.
Society teaches us we're supposed to be open-minded, to respect everyone regardless of race, religion, sex, personal beliefs, personal handicaps, age and any number of other options.
And then turns around and paints everything in broad strokes of Men and Women, Black and White, Catholic and Protestant.
We teach our kids in equality. I swear to god (and I'll fight you tooth and nail on this one, Kristen), I WILL NOT. I will teach my children to see in black and white (possible pun not intended) because that's how the world works.
Deep inside, we know that there's no equality. We know men aren't EQUAL to women. We know that gay people aren't equal to straight people. We know handicapped people are not equal to those of us who aren't.
The argument, the since-man-became-conscious argument that's been going on is: Who is Better.
You hear it all the time:
The bible tells you homosexuality is immoral. So straight people are BETTER than gay people.
You hear off-color jokes about how once you go black, you don't go back. Blacks are BETTER lovers than whites.
And, hell, even the dean of Princeton is trying to tell us (I'm NOT saying he's right) that boys are BETTER than girls at Science and Math.
We can try to see past the common divisions: past religion, politics, race, sex etc. etc... I'm saying try, because most of us can't.. because most people clothe themselves in ONE of these divisions.. as a good liberal or a good christian or as a black worthy of black pride.
We can TRY to see past these people.. and try to see everyone as individuals.. and then discover, for yourself, that there are STILL worse people and better people.
My point.. if there's much of a point here at all is... let's get off the equality talk. There is no equality. Try to accept people as individuals, try not to lump and accept that some of us suck and some of us rock and that there will ALWAYS be divisions between those who suck and those who rock.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-08 08:31 pm (UTC)Do you think that on an individual or group basis?
I agree that there are individuals who are better at some things than others. But I don't think you can say all people belonging to <this group> are better than all people belonging to <that group>. Of course everyone's different, and, on average, groups of people are different too. But that doesn't mean that there can't be a member of a group that is better than a member of another group, even if the group average is not.
Hopefully that made some sense. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-08 08:36 pm (UTC)Many of us believe that everyone of a certain group suck or rock. These people suck.
An example, the person who believes that all geeks rock.. sucks.. and has obviously never been around the entierty of geekdom.
I suppose it depends on your group size. When you paint in broad strokes (all men suck, all women rock. All italians suck. All greeks rock.), then I'm not sure it's fair to see that the average of one group is actually better than the average of another group.
And, again, if you do that, you suck.
Hopefully that made sense as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-08 08:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-08 08:42 pm (UTC)I use terms like "Rock" and "Suck" in terms of... I have judged you, your personality, your quirks, your successes and failures... and I believe that you are.. acceptable or unacceptable.
People constantly judge others, whether fairly or not.
My point was that some people are acceptable, as a whole, and some are not and try not to lump everyone of any category together and say that they are all acceptable.
Unless it is a very small and very personalized category such as "All the people from ChaoticMUX whom I've met"