Mind Forums

Celebrating scientific progress, high standards of living and globalization, modern societies boast to have better understanding for matters in the world. It is true that the human kind learned a lot. Now we have the facts in textbooks, journals, in the news, but does it mean that humanity has build up better understanding for those facts? Charlotte Bronte states: “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.”

To a great extent I support that opinion. One who is not aware of the genealogy of our kind is, no doubt, much more likely to be prejudiced towards people from a different race. Someone who does not believe that all people are equal, can be prejudiced towards the lower or the upper class. Some person from the upper levels of society may assume that those who are poor are either lazy or not talented at all. Someone situated on the bottom of the social hierarchy is likely to think that all rich people are scoundrels who manipulate and take advantage of others. The population of developed countries may have heard that peoples in Africa and Eastern Europe live in extreme poverty, their governments not being really successful. Then, unless they have plenty of information about those issues and a clear view of these peoples’ problems, they may readily assume the countries in Africa and Eastern Europe suffer because they are not hard-working and smart and, thus, cannot progress. One who cannot accept the fact that sexual differentiation begins in the chromosomes and that further brain development and behavior depend on the hormones that are constantly released, may be a sexist. Someone who is not aware of recent research that reveals homosexuals do have certain physical/brain differences, and it’s not all about nurture, may be strongly prejudiced against homosexuals.

I also wonder, what if prejudice is deeply implanted in humans? What if we cannot escape being prejudiced? Is it not possible that this is some kind of self-defending mechanism that we have developed in the process of evolution? Often, our prejudices are targeted at people and things that are different or deviant in some way. Probably, this is heritage from evolution – being prepared to aggress towards another species that may threaten you. Are we fooling ourselves when considering we are reasonable creatures capable of eliminating prejudice on the basis of deep knowledge and understanding? As a reply to such a question, William James says: “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices”. Supporting this view, I believe reason may help us recognize our prejudices, try to avoid them, despise them, even overcome some, but the moment we face yet another new, deviant thing, some novelty prejudice is likely to occur.

As much as I want to embrace the idea that humanity can live in ‘peace and harmony’, having forgotten what we used to call prejudice, I still strongly doubt that. Sadly, when it comes to predicting whether we can eradicate prejudice I recall George Aiken’s words: “If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.”