Cocksure and Prejudiced

Whatever be our education, we still permit ourselves the luxury of some prejudices and totally unjustifiable generalizations. Some obvious ones are such mistaken assumptions like the one that only women can teach children, or Sikhs are not bright enough or that all south Indians make good secretaries.

Similarly, there are fixed ideas in all the other fraternities too. The police begin with the notion that all are basically criminals. They haven’t just yet caught them yet. The lawyer is not very far away from this thought either. The painful point of discord is in the idea that every lawyer thinks that he can get his client off and this is blindly seconded by his client. In general life disaster strikes when mistakenly perceiving ourselves as brilliant we play a tricky one and are sure that no one can see through our machinations.

Mankind is prone to many foolish operations based on their even more stupid cocksure thinking. No superhuman genius is needed to avoid these pitfalls. All errors can never be avoided but definitely minimized.

Whatever the subject, if the matter is such that it can be settled by observation, then take care to observe yourself instead of depending on the hearsay of others.
This occurrence is not as rare it may logically sound. If you read the literature of long ago, you will notice that writers would speak about unicorns and such with such definite purpose that you almost would believe them. It seems unicorns were everywhere but no one had seen one.

Most assumptions are unfortunately less easy to resolve. Most people have passionate convictions. Like I was brought up on the information that we should be wary of Muslims because they steal children and make easy murderers. The women of our household very passionately believed in this idea and there was no shaking them out of it. That my best and most reliable friends are Muslims, still does not make the elderly ladies who brought me up, feel that this proves anything.

The best way to realize your own bias is to pay attention to yourself. If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, it is a sure sign that you have really no basis for your own convictions. If somebody maintains that the earth is flat, today, do you get angry? No! You rather pity the person and laugh it off. But in the matters of religion where there is no argument that can be proven either way, the chaos and stupidity results in behavior and acts that are stupendous and shattering.

Shall we use a little logic and try to become more rational? Be wary of opinions that flatter your self-esteem. Do not believe in the superior excellence of your prejudices.