I think one of the main reasons why division continues to grow in a society is generalization (whether hasty or sweeping). It manifests pure arrogance thinking that one’s opinion or insight is the correct one, making the others wrong. Here, the person who generalizes thinks that he/she has the final say to an issue. What he/she believes is the right thing and others should follow suit. This person thinks that he/she is intelligent enough that he/she is the one to believe in.
Now the world consists a few billion people, who have different cultures, background, and experiences whether it’s from the society, family or education. This makes up the belief system of a person and his/her opinion and insights will come from that belief system. Hence, this planet is made up of billions of ideas and characters. Not to mention the people from the past and the future, this is just the present age. So how brilliantly arrogant is a person to say that his/her idea is the correct one when making a statement about an issue if he/she is only one of the countless people who has a say about that issue?
There are two kinds of answers: absolute and relative. A person cannot say that 2 plus 2 is 5 based on his opinion. There was a brilliant video illustrating this point. 2 plus 2 is equal to 4 and that is an absolute answer because Mathematics proves that this is the answer.
Another illustration is a post I saw from a famous person saying that he approves fat shaming. According to his brilliant mind, “I think the world would be a better place if all these weak minds that are captive to their bad food habits were constantly told to get off their fucking couches and stop being little bitches.” How wonderful. He concluded that every fat person has weak minds and that they are captive to their food habits. What if a person is fat not because of bad choices but because of a medical condition? What did the generalization bring? Mockery, insult, discrimination, and his own stupidity. I don’t agree that it depends on how you perceive the statement. It doesn’t change the fact that there are statements which are toxic generalizations, something that we should avoid making.
So what’s the antidote to the poison of generalization? Objectivity (plus the magic of humility). Present your statements with evidence, logic and cohesiveness. If you want to make a point, prove it. Don’t just base it on your emotion, biases and opinion. Intelligently and carefully lay out your arguments. This way, we can challenge our ideas to beautifully morph into powerful insights and useful information. Our Constitution provides us with a liberal amount of freedom to make any statement but I hope that we will be responsible in making them, by being (or trying to be) faithfully objective because we might unknowingly lead others into flawed perceptions and just our own unfounded opinions and biases.
We are an intelligent race. We just have to be (or to try hard to be) more responsible. Intentionally.
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