Nasty Prejudice or Wonderful Uniqueness?
abracad, · Categories: spiritualityTo listen to the political correctness lobbies anyone would think that prejudice is the greatest evil stalking the planet. Without in any way justifying the most heinous acts that stem from its distortions I'd like to present a different view of prejudice.
What has always been and always will be is Spirit, or God for want of a better word. In its ceaseless urge for progress, eternal Spirit created the physical universe and elected to manifest itself in this perturbing playground in countless different guises of which me and you are but two.
And here's where prejudice comes in. If we were all alike then our earthly incarnations would be pointless because we would be unable to play off our differences one against the other.
Let's assume a world entirely without prejudice, where no biased idea can exist. What we'd have is a world of perfect logic. Where every choice, every move would be determined by some immovable parameters. We'd all be like Star Trek's Spock.
But in that nightmare scenario everyone would make the same choices. Everyone would want to drive the same car, live in the same place, do the same job... Society, the very essence of human existence, would cease to function.
Instead, we are born different. Into different backgrounds, with different talents, abilities, likes, dislikes... And of course we all favor the kind of world that favors our particular characteristics. In other words prejudice is an innate part to our very being.
Prejudice per se is not wrong, and we should stop trying to eliminate it from our psyche. Instead we should seek ever-greater understanding of our particular nature, including awareness of our prejudices and when they are driving our actions. We should do all within our power never to harm others as a result of our prejudices, ie we should never get carried away in the mass hysteria of nationalism or racism. But if we simply prefer X over Y, even if we can't rationally justify it, it's fine. We're just being human and fulfilling our purpose.
Humans are irrational beings. That irrationality is part of the very reason for our existence. Prejudice is the irrational favoring of one thing over another. It's what makes you what you are, like your DNA or fingerprint. So, we are naturally and unavoidably prejudiced. And what's really great is that everyone's prejudices are different.
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