No, I am not going to talk about the proverbial Pride and Prejudice of Darcy and Elizabeth in Jane Austen's novel of 1813. The novel is more than just a reality even today. Austen had portrayed these two common characteristics of human beings as present in two individuals; but just imagine these two characteristics found in a single person, who is at the same time proud and prejudiced. Believe me it is not very hard to find such a person, if we look around us carefully. These are the persons who can spew venom into a society. Being prejudiced I am told is one of the common characteristics of not only our age, but all the epochs have gone through it, and the fact is that there is not a single individual on the face of the earth, who is not prejudiced about certain person or other, at a particular point of time. But we here talk about compulsive prejudiced persons, who judge a person's character, even before they have met them.
Talking of prejudice, it is dangerous to be prejudiced in either way, positively or negatively. We often find persons who would glorify an individual even before they have known them, and after a little while they might talk just the reverse of it all. Any judgment or opinion which is not based on reason or fact is sure to crumble. But unfortunately the world operates on the basis of prejudice; take for instance, any area of our everyday lives : we are constantly confronted by this one reality : prejudice.
One of the greatest injustices that we could ever commit against humanity is to act on prejudices, and thus misjudging people. This simply means not giving due credit to people to what they really are. Positive prejudice is giving undue credit to people who do not deserve, and negative prejudice is discrediting people. And in either way we are dong injustice. But is there a way how we can be unbiased and unprejudiced? Humanly speaking, we all of us have our own color glasses, and therefore the reality we see around is always colored. But there is a way how the impact and effect of these color glasses can be controlled to a certain extent. If I am aware that I am seeing the reality through my color glasses, that itself will partially undo the damage that would otherwise wreck.
Some of the world's greatest disasters were caused not by willful, deliberate, conscious judgement, but more often than not by prejudices. What happened to the millions of Jews hacked to death or chocked to death in gas chambers during the reign of terror by Nazi regime in Germany under the leadership of Hitler is based on prejudices. We may unwittingly discredit many of the people we relate to every day due to our prejudices, if we do not check on them. Uncontrolled prejudices can cause damage not only to others, but also to my own self; I am building wall between myself and the other, instead of building bridges of fraternal outlook towards the other. In the long run this may cause me a lot.
Today I would like to take two minutes to sit quietly and recall to mind some of the persons that I am prejudiced for or against. Let me bring to my consciousness some of the persons who make my heart leap at the very look, or the people who make my day bad, by the very look. If I am prejudiced against some, they too have the right to be prejudiced against me, and that is the formula that can make me truly unhappy, and shrink my circle of friends and wellwishers. If I am able to give due credit to each person, according to their true worth, then I too can expect people to estimate me on the basis of my merit. If I am able to see my worth and the worth of each of the people I mingle each day, a beautiful state of mutual appreciation may rise up, and that is truly a gateway to true and lasting happiness!
No comments:
Post a Comment