The focus is often on Racism - because that's the one that tends to lead to wars, mass genocide, and mass discrimination. But the urge to discriminate, the prejudices, and assumptions - aren't just associated with racial superiority, but other things as well. Religion. Politics. Interests. Educational Background. Nationality. Regionalism. Sexism. Size.
Even on lj - I see it, this constant positioning - who has the most friends, the most posts, the best entries, the best fanfic, the best essays, has read the most or best books, seen the best movies...it's hidden between the lines.
I was thinking about it this morning. How this need to compete, to be superior is an odd double-edged sword. It's a heavy theme in the Harry Potter novel I'm reading which has a villian who is so focused on being the best and most superior wizard that he has literally broken off portions of himself to accomplish it. Nothing else matters to him. HE must be the best.
At the struggle to be the best does push us forward - it is how we got to the moon, how ipods and i-macs and cell phones and tvs were created. Competition, the struggle to survive, is a necessary bit of evolution. Without it - we are bit like the poor souls on that planet in the film Serenity, who go to sleep and die.
But, at the same time it can cripple us. It can be incredibly destructive. It's not wrong to want to improve oneself, to want to be the best at one's endeavors - but to do it at the price of someone else's life or happiness...then it becomes wrong.
Balance. To be the greatest but not at the expense of someone else. And to realize that no matter what you do there will always be someone out there who is better than you are or for that matter worse.
Hitler always fascinated me. He was part Jew - on his mother's side - which I think makes him Jewish. Often described as Dark haired. Short. A moustach. Flabby. The complete opposite of the master race that he proposed - Blue eyed, blond haired, tall, Clean shaven, and muscular. The polar opposite of himself. Did he hate himself that much? Was his racism an act of self revulsion? Or an act of hatred towards his roots, which he believed kept him from becoming what he wanted to become?
We spend a lot of time in discussing racism on the victims of it, but not much time trying to understand the perpetutators, I think. Writing them off loosely as nothing more than demons. But they aren't, they are us. Sometimes we rise above the generalization and are able to see the person as an individual, and other times, not so much.
no subject
Size.
Even on lj - I see it, this constant positioning - who has the most friends, the most posts, the best entries, the best fanfic, the best essays, has read the most or best books, seen the best movies...it's hidden between the lines.
I was thinking about it this morning. How this need to compete, to be superior is an odd double-edged sword. It's a heavy theme in the Harry Potter novel I'm reading which has a villian who is so focused on being the best and most superior wizard that he has literally broken off portions of himself to accomplish it. Nothing else matters to him. HE must be the best.
At the struggle to be the best does push us forward - it is how we got to the moon, how ipods and i-macs and cell phones and tvs were created. Competition, the struggle to survive, is a necessary bit of evolution.
Without it - we are bit like the poor souls on that planet in the film Serenity, who go to sleep and die.
But, at the same time it can cripple us. It can be incredibly destructive.
It's not wrong to want to improve oneself, to want to be the best at one's endeavors - but to do it at the price of someone else's life or happiness...then it becomes wrong.
Balance. To be the greatest but not at the expense of someone else. And to realize that no matter what you do there will always be someone out there who is better than you are or for that matter worse.
Hitler always fascinated me. He was part Jew - on his mother's side - which I think makes him Jewish. Often described as Dark haired. Short. A moustach. Flabby. The complete opposite of the master race that he proposed - Blue eyed, blond haired, tall, Clean shaven, and muscular. The polar opposite of himself. Did he hate himself that much? Was his racism an act of self revulsion? Or an act of hatred towards his roots, which he believed kept him from becoming what he wanted to become?
We spend a lot of time in discussing racism on the victims of it, but not much time trying to understand the perpetutators, I think. Writing them off loosely as nothing more than demons. But they aren't, they are us. Sometimes we rise above the generalization and are able to see the person as an individual, and other times, not so much.
Thanks for responding. Very interesting.