Appearances are always deceiving
Jeff Sullivan
Issue date: 10/24/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
This is not limited to sight; for example, I am deathly afraid of spiders. So when I'm in bed, half dreaming and just about to fall asleep, a leg hair will lift off my skin, or the cover will catch a breeze and shift, and I will immediately think there is something deathly poisonous taking a stroll across my leg.
Rationally, I know the chances of a black widow or brown recluse running across my leg are about the same as getting hit by lightning, but when you're in that situation, rational thought goes out the bedroom window.
Rationally, we know not everyone with long hair is a hippie, and conversely we know not everyone in a suit and tie is a upstanding citizen, but passing them on the street, what immediately passes through your head?
The point is our assumptions and expectations shape our initial responses to reality, and we don't even realize it. Even now, I'm making gross generalizations about humanity as a whole, and if you're still reading this you haven't realized how contradictory this piece of writing has been in that respect.
Although prejudice is a great survival tactic in the African jungle, Australian bush or Siberian tundra, haven't we, in the cradle of Western "civilization," gotten to the point where prejudice actually limits our well-being rather than extends it?
Rationally, I know the chances of a black widow or brown recluse running across my leg are about the same as getting hit by lightning, but when you're in that situation, rational thought goes out the bedroom window.
Rationally, we know not everyone with long hair is a hippie, and conversely we know not everyone in a suit and tie is a upstanding citizen, but passing them on the street, what immediately passes through your head?
The point is our assumptions and expectations shape our initial responses to reality, and we don't even realize it. Even now, I'm making gross generalizations about humanity as a whole, and if you're still reading this you haven't realized how contradictory this piece of writing has been in that respect.
Although prejudice is a great survival tactic in the African jungle, Australian bush or Siberian tundra, haven't we, in the cradle of Western "civilization," gotten to the point where prejudice actually limits our well-being rather than extends it?
