Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bigotry is stupid.

I have a rather radical theory about bigotry(one that will probably have to be refined for years). To put into one sentence.

Bigotry doesn't work.

In the long term and macro scale any unfounded bigotry or discrimination will disadvantage those who practice it. Sure in the short run you can oppress the hell out of people and do all kinds of things to put them at a disadvantage. However you deprive yourself of what they can do in your society, eventually someone less prejudiced than you will give them a chance(in or out of your society) and you are at a disadvantage. An extreme example would be all the expatriate German Jewish scientists working against and not for Germany in WW2.

There is a thornier part of this theory, unfounded prejudice hurts a society, however statistically correct prejudice doesn't. If because of culture some group either in majority or substantial minority is actually representative of the prejudice then the society's market is only reflecting truth(an uncomfortable one) rather than bigotry. An example of this would be cultures with a "if God wills it" rather than a "God helps those who help themselves" work ethic.

The insidious thing is modern philosophy discourages self critical analysis especially on the part of groups perceived to be victims of a prejudice.

Modern science has mostly moved beyond coming up with biological excuses for prejudice, however the fields of Anthropology, Sociology, and Philosophy have decided to rush their own finding to declare that all cultures are equally valid and therefore no culture is advantageous to people who follow it.

This disservices all cultures, because without an objective analysis we will not know what parts of each others heritage should be added to our own or which parts of our own are hurting us. In the long run this very bigotry against bigotry will be disadvantageous and someone will have the courage to seize the advantage by looking upon the world as it is.

2 comments:

  1. Hello!

    The family that blogs together stays together!

    As a blogger, I use bigotry to emphasize a point and not as random chatter.

    IE: I have been known to use the word NIGGER, with my comment that blacks are not born niggers they earn the title!

    IE: My sister is convinced that I don't like Mexicans--but in reality I don't like illegal
    immigrants because they are criminals!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for checking out the blog OCM.

    As I said OCM it is unfounded bigotry that doesn't work in the long term.

    ReplyDelete