Blind Judgement

[Chief Uwachiquen]

(To Preface, this is something that had been floating in my head for the past few days and something I've observed for a while, but more starkly, more...in my face than any other point prior. And for a variety of reasons I've decided I wanted to return to PD. One of them being that I missed the intelligent people found here and the variety of thoughts and information that can be found herein. At any rate, I felt it wise to return with content(The quality is up for debate, however.) rather than blowing air out of any variety of holes I may have.)

There are many in this world that we would look down the ends of our noses at subconsciously, or, perhaps more admirably, make a concerted and intentional effort to look down. I'm as guilty as any other about doing this, though, but at least I have the decency to understand, to process, and to realize why I am doing it. Or even that I -am- doing it. The biggest irony I've had the pleasure of encountering is the sort of judgment, the sort of persecution that comes from -being- the very thing you condemn. Now, I'm not talking about hypocritical people except in a more vague and textbook manner. To be this, they are in effect this other thing. But it goes deeper than that, it's something more...

It's something that I've suspected for some time but never been able to put into words. I know from the, however at times brief, flirtations with Psychology that people tend to seek out and despise the things in others, to nitpick the very things that they dislike in themselves. But even deeper than that, the sense of superiority that one assumes when they're in an awful situation, or with an awful crowd, or whatever it is. That they don't "Belong" there. That they're somehow better despite that they found themselves in the same stinking pit of degenerates they glower at. And this is both delightful and really disheartening from the point of view of someone who recognizes this when it happens.

Delightful because I, in some small way, get to feel smug and superior for being somehow better despite not knowing much else about the perpetrator except for that offense. It's not something to be particularly proud of, for certain, but at least I'm honest. Disheartening, however, because someone who has gotten themselves to that point, one who assumes and makes blanket assumptions is nearly always out of reach, out of touch, and most depressingly, resistant to assimilate new information. And that's really sad, and I can't help but wonder what brought them to that point. What brings anyone to the point where they cease to -want- to understand, to -want- to learn. I can understand a lack of empathy, that's probably the easiest thing to lose, the desire to show empathy, compassion. But when the simple act of learning, and subsequently understanding becomes too difficult for someone to muster the will to do.

It's people like that that I don't know whether to feel sorry for them or enraged by them.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Give me an example.

[Chief Uwachiquen]

The way people of faith can feel superior to others, even of their own creed, because what they know and see and feel is somehow more "Real" or "True".

The way someone who is down on their luck, in a shelter, for example, at possibly the lowest rock bottom moment of their life, can still find the pride to blindly assume that somehow their reasons for being there are superior to anyone else's.

The way that someone who listens to the same music somehow "Gets it" more than anyone else who listens to the same music, or reads the same book, without giving pause to consider, or even ask, what their views or reasons are.

Those sorts of things, I think, specifically.

[Phox]

Hmm. Not sure I agree with what you are positing here, but I can't see a specific point that I disagree with. I understand what you're getting at (I think), and I agree with your assessment (mostly), but it seems... off. I will think on this, and maybe have more insight later.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The way people of faith can feel superior to others, even of their own creed, because what they know and see and feel is somehow more "Real" or "True".

The way someone who is down on their luck, in a shelter, for example, at possibly the lowest rock bottom moment of their life, can still find the pride to blindly assume that somehow their reasons for being there are superior to anyone else's.

The way that someone who listens to the same music somehow "Gets it" more than anyone else who listens to the same music, or reads the same book, without giving pause to consider, or even ask, what their views or reasons are.

Those sorts of things, I think, specifically.

What you are describing are simply people with fucked up priorities.