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Creating A Thinking World with John Chaffee, Ph.D. @www.thinkingworld.com |
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"Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the highest degree, while the other is in distress, try whether one side of his face can smile while the other is pinched."
"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means-except by getting off his back." "Half the secret of getting along with people is consideration of their views; the other half is tolerance in one's own views." |
One of the most threatening obstacles to creating a Thinking World lies in the destructive phenomena of discrimination and its endless variety of destructive offspring: prejudice, bigotry, racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and so on, and so on, and so on. The underlying dynamics of the many forms of discrimination are basically the same. A group of people who share some common feature (race, gender, sexual preference, religion) judge other groups to be inferior and so deserving of contempt, ridicule, and hatred. Discrimination involves:
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Discrimination runs a gamut, from a seemingly ethnic "joke" to the horrors of wars and genocide. Discrimination has played a prominent role in all cultures throughout history. The roots of discrimination run deep, expressing primitive fears and hatreds buried deep within us. Humans are not born with discriminatory beliefs but they learn them quickly from others, especially adults. And whether they're aware of them or not, virtually every person harbors some kinds of discriminatory attitudes.
Discrimination has a violent and destructive history with humans: why do you think it's so hard to eliminate? We need to work together on this problem, sharing experiences and ideas to overcome it. Share an experience with discrimination which you have had which can be posted on the Message Boards, along with your ideas for dealing with discriminatory attitudes. |
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