bigdocmcd
OK, I'm back but I don't know for how long.
Basic questions
Ever heard the old joke: The world is divided into two groups, those who divide the world into two groups and those who don’t? Well, I’d like to divide some aspects of life into two groups. Hopefully I can do a good job and bring into question an important issue. My wife says, however, that sometimes I get too complicated, so we’ll see how well I do.
The two groups are what I call “basic” and “abstract” aspects of life. My definition of a basic aspect is one which we have little trouble understanding or defining. An abstract aspect is one which is built on these basic aspects. Some basic aspects are quite close to abstract ones and are confused for them all the time.
For example, I consider hunger to be a basic aspect of life. We all pretty well know what hunger is, even if we’ve never experienced a severe case of it. Appetite, however, I consider an abstraction. It’s a little harder to define but we frequently use the two interchangeably.
Both basics and abstractions can have variations in intensity. Only abstractions, on the other hand, frequently have conditions appended. These conditions attempt to “define” the abstraction better, to show that only in some combinations of basics do they exist.
In our example here, hunger is a physical condition, appetite is a mental one. If we are hungry we generally have an appetite, but not always. Sometimes we have an appetite, but no hunger. If we’re very sick or if we’ve been offered an “unappetizing” choice, we may “lose our appetite.” Note that we seldom talk of “losing our hunger,” although it does happen if we are without food too long. But this loss is not in our head, it is in our body.
Some other ideas of basic and abstract aspects that occur to me are: love and romance, law and justice, food and cuisine. I’m sure you can come up with some others. So, given a background of where my thoughts originate, I’d like to discuss, or more accurately “question,” one particular basic and one particular abstract aspect of our society.
What is prejudice? This question has been on my mind a lot lately. I normally start thinking about things because I see or hear some extreme examples of my subject. Not this time. No, rather it came up because of hearing people complain about it in others, not in personal terms, but in philosophical ones.
If I hate someone, is it automatically prejudice? If not, what is the dividing line? Is it enough that the person be black, Jewish, Albanian? How do you separate the hate one has for a particular person from the hate one might have for those of a certain race, ethnicity, religion? Can you? Should you?
Does it require the hater to be in some sort of power for his hatred to be prejudice? Can a black man, for example, be considered prejudiced against white people? Some say no. If we restrict people's right of free speech, making their words crime, is this better than allowing people to be offended?
As you can see, all I have is questions. Usually I have plenty of opinions to express, but on this one it seems all I can come up with are questions. Everywhere I look the hairs are split finer and finer. And I came to understand that this was because some things in this world are basic to the human psyche, others abstractions built from the basics.
Hate is a basic. It comes in all kinds of variations from mild dislike because someone slipped in ahead of you at the checkout stand to intense hatred that brings death and mayhem for millions. We've all known it, all know what it is. I believe that even those who claim never to get angry, and certainly not to hate, have it in them, are holding it in check like they would a wild horse.
Prejudice, on the other hand, is an abstraction, one which we have created to divide hatred by some measure. And, as an abstract idea, it has purpose, value. But how far can this idea be stretched? When it comes to represent a more serious kind of hatred, when it is co-opted by some political group to achieve its ends, then that purpose and value is lost.
If I dislike the Jewish people because of certain imagined aspects of their culture and beliefs, is it prejudice? Most would say yes. What if the word Jewish was replaced by Moslem? How many then? What about Christian? Does that change your opinion?
If you feel the first sentence of the last paragraph is true, what if the aspect is not imagined? What if the aspect that promotes your prejudice is the Jewish attitude that homosexuality is an abomination? Does it display prejudice for us to dislike a group of people because we feel they display prejudice? Can we be truly tolerant? Can we tolerate intolerance?
If it is your belief that Christians consider abortion murder, does the sight of people picketing outside an abortion clinic makes you angry? Is this prejudice? What if they’re harassing women going into the clinic, carrying pictures of aborted fetuses? Any change in your attitude? Are you prejudiced against them because of their actions or their beliefs? All Christians or just those on the news?
Tangled web? Sure. Most abstractions are, because they're not "real," they're invented conceptions, subject to interpretation, no matter how many dictionaries you consult. We generally don’t argue about the basics, just the abstractions.
Am I prejudiced because my folks were? I don't recall them ever expressing any opinion about black people, but somehow I grew up with the idea that they didn't like them. I tried to make sure I wasn't prejudiced, but I began to realize that maybe I was just not showing it, like my folks. Could others tell that it might be buried deep inside me? Is it? Could I even tell?
And how do you acknowledge the differences between people if it's not only politically incorrect but sometimes downright illegal? Or are we suppose to deny the reality of these differences? That’s certainly the way our society is going. Better to deny a problem than accept that our abstractions are leading us astray, to take a chance of being judged to be prejudiced.
Blacks do less well in school than whites. I have no intention of addressing why that may be because it's just too complicated, too many factors. Yet it is more “right” for some people to discuss the problem than others. Why?
If we want to solve this problem, if we want to change whatever social ills we have that cause this situation, must we not at least admit the problem exists? Many may find you prejudiced if you do. The presumption may be that you believe that the situation is some fault of the black person. And that's automatically prejudice.
Does it create a climate of prejudice when a group of people are constantly proclaiming how prejudiced another group is? Can those in the second group become discriminated against because of the imagined wrongness of their “prejudice?” What if you’re a member of that second group who isn’t prejudiced? Doesn’t that broad brush catch you too?
Anyway, I not only believe it wrong to be prejudiced, I think it wrong to pick another group and call them prejudiced. To do this, I believe, shows prejudice also. No matter what the group, prejudice by definition is wrong. That’s just the way the abstraction has been built. And it’s most wrong because it does not take into account the individuality that exists in that group.
Anyway, no answers, just more questions.
The two groups are what I call “basic” and “abstract” aspects of life. My definition of a basic aspect is one which we have little trouble understanding or defining. An abstract aspect is one which is built on these basic aspects. Some basic aspects are quite close to abstract ones and are confused for them all the time.
For example, I consider hunger to be a basic aspect of life. We all pretty well know what hunger is, even if we’ve never experienced a severe case of it. Appetite, however, I consider an abstraction. It’s a little harder to define but we frequently use the two interchangeably.
Both basics and abstractions can have variations in intensity. Only abstractions, on the other hand, frequently have conditions appended. These conditions attempt to “define” the abstraction better, to show that only in some combinations of basics do they exist.
In our example here, hunger is a physical condition, appetite is a mental one. If we are hungry we generally have an appetite, but not always. Sometimes we have an appetite, but no hunger. If we’re very sick or if we’ve been offered an “unappetizing” choice, we may “lose our appetite.” Note that we seldom talk of “losing our hunger,” although it does happen if we are without food too long. But this loss is not in our head, it is in our body.
Some other ideas of basic and abstract aspects that occur to me are: love and romance, law and justice, food and cuisine. I’m sure you can come up with some others. So, given a background of where my thoughts originate, I’d like to discuss, or more accurately “question,” one particular basic and one particular abstract aspect of our society.
What is prejudice? This question has been on my mind a lot lately. I normally start thinking about things because I see or hear some extreme examples of my subject. Not this time. No, rather it came up because of hearing people complain about it in others, not in personal terms, but in philosophical ones.
If I hate someone, is it automatically prejudice? If not, what is the dividing line? Is it enough that the person be black, Jewish, Albanian? How do you separate the hate one has for a particular person from the hate one might have for those of a certain race, ethnicity, religion? Can you? Should you?
Does it require the hater to be in some sort of power for his hatred to be prejudice? Can a black man, for example, be considered prejudiced against white people? Some say no. If we restrict people's right of free speech, making their words crime, is this better than allowing people to be offended?
As you can see, all I have is questions. Usually I have plenty of opinions to express, but on this one it seems all I can come up with are questions. Everywhere I look the hairs are split finer and finer. And I came to understand that this was because some things in this world are basic to the human psyche, others abstractions built from the basics.
Hate is a basic. It comes in all kinds of variations from mild dislike because someone slipped in ahead of you at the checkout stand to intense hatred that brings death and mayhem for millions. We've all known it, all know what it is. I believe that even those who claim never to get angry, and certainly not to hate, have it in them, are holding it in check like they would a wild horse.
Prejudice, on the other hand, is an abstraction, one which we have created to divide hatred by some measure. And, as an abstract idea, it has purpose, value. But how far can this idea be stretched? When it comes to represent a more serious kind of hatred, when it is co-opted by some political group to achieve its ends, then that purpose and value is lost.
If I dislike the Jewish people because of certain imagined aspects of their culture and beliefs, is it prejudice? Most would say yes. What if the word Jewish was replaced by Moslem? How many then? What about Christian? Does that change your opinion?
If you feel the first sentence of the last paragraph is true, what if the aspect is not imagined? What if the aspect that promotes your prejudice is the Jewish attitude that homosexuality is an abomination? Does it display prejudice for us to dislike a group of people because we feel they display prejudice? Can we be truly tolerant? Can we tolerate intolerance?
If it is your belief that Christians consider abortion murder, does the sight of people picketing outside an abortion clinic makes you angry? Is this prejudice? What if they’re harassing women going into the clinic, carrying pictures of aborted fetuses? Any change in your attitude? Are you prejudiced against them because of their actions or their beliefs? All Christians or just those on the news?
Tangled web? Sure. Most abstractions are, because they're not "real," they're invented conceptions, subject to interpretation, no matter how many dictionaries you consult. We generally don’t argue about the basics, just the abstractions.
Am I prejudiced because my folks were? I don't recall them ever expressing any opinion about black people, but somehow I grew up with the idea that they didn't like them. I tried to make sure I wasn't prejudiced, but I began to realize that maybe I was just not showing it, like my folks. Could others tell that it might be buried deep inside me? Is it? Could I even tell?
And how do you acknowledge the differences between people if it's not only politically incorrect but sometimes downright illegal? Or are we suppose to deny the reality of these differences? That’s certainly the way our society is going. Better to deny a problem than accept that our abstractions are leading us astray, to take a chance of being judged to be prejudiced.
Blacks do less well in school than whites. I have no intention of addressing why that may be because it's just too complicated, too many factors. Yet it is more “right” for some people to discuss the problem than others. Why?
If we want to solve this problem, if we want to change whatever social ills we have that cause this situation, must we not at least admit the problem exists? Many may find you prejudiced if you do. The presumption may be that you believe that the situation is some fault of the black person. And that's automatically prejudice.
Does it create a climate of prejudice when a group of people are constantly proclaiming how prejudiced another group is? Can those in the second group become discriminated against because of the imagined wrongness of their “prejudice?” What if you’re a member of that second group who isn’t prejudiced? Doesn’t that broad brush catch you too?
Anyway, I not only believe it wrong to be prejudiced, I think it wrong to pick another group and call them prejudiced. To do this, I believe, shows prejudice also. No matter what the group, prejudice by definition is wrong. That’s just the way the abstraction has been built. And it’s most wrong because it does not take into account the individuality that exists in that group.
Anyway, no answers, just more questions.
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